


The Mightiest Heroes on any Earth

by latelyllama



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supergirl (TV 2015), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Confused Avengers, Crossover, Gen, Multiverse, Protective Avengers, Protective Oliver Queen, Protective Tony Stark, Sweet Barry Allen, Sweet Kara Danvers, Sweet Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-26
Packaged: 2021-01-06 01:17:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21218159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/latelyllama/pseuds/latelyllama
Summary: They are Earth's mightiest heroes, saviours of the world, but even that may not be enough. Dark forces have stirred, dragging two worlds on a collision course which puts the whole of reality put in danger.Will they have the strength to stop it?





	1. Beginnings

The pain started to subside, just as the blinding light began to fade. Oliver felt it all throughout his body. The tingling, crackling, burning sensation. It was overwhelming. Oliver’s eyes were screwed shut. The copper smell of blood was in the air and he grimaced. Another person he failed to save. He tried standing but his legs wobbled too much. He groaned.

Then his eyes shot open.

The ground beneath him looked scorched. It was cracked where paint had been. He saw a boot. Dinah was on the ground next to him. She wasn’t moving but he saw the rise and fall of her chest. Alive, that was good. Caitlin was next to her. Her hair was still white, but like Dinah she wasn’t moving. He didn’t panic. If Killer Frost was still around, then Caitlin was too. Through the ringing in his ears, he heard voices. They were distant, but he could hear the force in them. There was a loud clanging sound, like metal slamming against stone. A high pitched whine brought his head up. His vision was darkening. As Oliver succumbed to the darkness, the last thing he saw was a metal man with a bright glowing chest.

Their steps were a dull thud against the metal walkways, overlooking the machinery of the old waste treatment plant. Operations had been moved to a newer facility, leaving this place abandoned. The perfect place for a base of operations. Oliver moved carefully, his ears straining for any sound. Behind him, Diggle moved equally as cautiously, his gun raised and ready. Oliver pressed a hand to his chest and the comms came to life with a dull beep.

“Dinah, Rene, check in?”

“Nothing so far” Rene answered.

“We’re moving to the west side of the building now” Dinah added.

Oliver nodded, though he knew they couldn’t see him. It had taken them long enough to find this place. They couldn’t afford to be reckless.

It had all started a few weeks ago. At the time, they didn’t think much of it. Somebody went missing. This wasn’t a particularly unusual thing to happen in Star City, so Oliver felt comfortable leaving it to the police. Dinah was always saying her officers were the best. They’d handed the case across and left it at that. Then the next person vanished, then the next, then the next.

Eric Holden. Runs a gym on the east side. Sophia Garcia. Stay at home mom. Brian Adams. Works as an electrician.

They were all like that. Ordinary people snatched from their homes, their places of employment, or even just randomly off the street. The string of disappearances had certainly got their attention, but it was when the first of them, Eric Holden, had turned up dead, beaten to hell and back, that had put them on the case. Dinah didn’t even have to ask.

They couldn’t be entirely sure the cases were linked, but the suspicion was there. Even if they only found one of them alive, they could call it a success. Or rather the others could, Oliver wouldn’t. He wouldn’t call it a success until they were all safely back home.

A tip from one of Dinah’s sources had led them here. According to Felicity, the place had been abandoned for months, but then in the last week there had more activity about the place. Nearby security picked up more people coming and going. There were lights in the window. If Dinah’s source could be believed, there were a lot of people in here.

So where were they now?

Oliver had been in his share of uncomfortable places, but there was always something unnerving about a large abandoned building. He shook himself out of it. He stepped through a doorway into a long corridor. One by one, he and Diggle checked the doors leading off from it. It was all mundane: offices, store cupboards and the like.

“You guys find anything?” Felicity’s voice sounded in his ear.

“Nothing so far” Dinah answered, “Rene and I are just about finished our sweep.”

“I guess your tip wasn’t all it was cracked up to be” Rene commented.

“This was always a shot in the dark Rene. Oliver, you and Dig have anything?” Dinah asked.

Diggle held up a hand and they both stopped. On the ground, just visible in the light of the torches, was a drop of blood. Since it was still shiny, it was recent. Up ahead was another drop.

“Oliver?”

“Stand by” Oliver said, already moving to follow the trail.

“Converge on our location by the north corridors” Diggle ordered.

“Copy” was the response.

The blood couldn’t have been here long, Oliver thought. He stopped, once again straining his ears for something. Anything! There was nothing. Needless to say, Oliver and Diggle were more careful as they continued the search. It wasn’t until they reached the end of the corridor that they found something. Pushing open the door, Oliver’s nose was assaulted by a coppery smell.

He grimaced. The room beyond was not large. There were no furnishings, no windows, nothing except three bodies on the ground. Diggle hurried forward, checking the first. He looked up at Oliver and shook his head. He activated the comms.

“Felicity, I need facial recognition” Oliver said, angling one of the people’s faces to the body cam in his suit.

“Just a moment.”

All three bodies had their hands bound behind their backs. Judging by the bruises around the bonds, they struggled. A lot. Diggle showed his body cam the faces of the other two and they waited for Felicity to get back to them. The blood they’d followed came from this room, Oliver could see the trail.

“It’s confirmed. Those people are Sophia Garcia, Brian Adams and Daniel Montague, three of the missing people” Felicity said.

Oliver cursed.

“Oh god.”

Dinah and Rene were at the door, looking in with shocked expressions. Oliver stood. There were five missing people, four of whom were now dead. There was only one left, Elliot Stewart. They had to find him before this happened again.

“Oliver, look at this” Diggle said.

He gestured to Sophia Garcia’s neck. It looked to Oliver like a bloody mess, but it wasn’t when he looked closer. Through the blood, Oliver could make out a pattern. A circle cut vertically in half, with one half slashed through with three horizontal lines. He turned to inspect Daniel Montague. He had the same symbol carved into his neck.

“This one too” Dinah said from Brian Adams body.

“So whoever killed these people decided to use them as a canvas?” Rene asked bluntly.

“Since they’re bloody, this was done when they were still alive” Dinah added.

“But what for? A calling card?” Diggle asked.

Oliver’s eyes swept over the room again. Besides the people, there was nothing. Whoever had done this was a professional, leaving no evidence behind. If the symbol was a calling card, it would help narrow down a search. If the first victim had the same symbol, it would connect them. He cursed again.

“Dinah, call it in” Oliver said.

Dinah nodded, moving into the hall to contact the police. There was nothing more they could do tonight, not for these people at least. With this latest evidence, Oliver hoped they could move forwards so they didn’t die in vain.

Paperwork never got any easier, Dinah thought, despite all her years as a cop. It never failed to give her a headache either but if it meant she could do her job and be entirely above board, then she would suck it up and get on with it. Even if she hated it. The station around her bustled, despite being later in the day. It was a Thursday, so if patterns were a thing, they should be expecting a big rush this evening. People thought the police would be more active on Friday evenings so they got their crimes in before the weekend. Too bad the police didn’t believe in weekends, so were active all the time.

Or at least that was Dinah’s idea. Make it seem like the police were always active so criminals didn’t know when to strike. It worked for the most part, but it was tiring work, especially when fighting crime was your day and night job. Dinah eased the tension in her neck as she continued reading her papers. Last nights search hadn’t ended as well as they’d hoped, and she knew Oliver didn’t like that. He always took it personally when they couldn’t save someone, no matter how many times anyone told him otherwise. Not that last night hadn’t been productive. The families of the three had some small amount of closure at least.

The symbol on their necks was bothering her. Felicity had checked the records of the first victim, Eric Holden, and found he had the same symbol, it was just obscured by other scars on his neck. All four were connected in some way, they had to be! Felicity said she’d do a deep dive to try and find something, but Dinah didn’t know how long that would take. Her phone rang loudly, snapping her from her thoughts.

“Captain Drake” she announced as she answered the call.

“Captain, it’s Anastas. I need you to come to Star City General. I think you’ll want to see this” Officer Anastas told her.

Dinah blinked.

“I’m on my way. Is this urgent?”

“I think so” Anastas said.

After telling him she was on her way, she hung up, hurrying to her car. Anastas hadn’t sounded distressed so he wasn’t injured, nor was his partner. But why would they be at Star City General Hospital? The drive over was fast, she somehow beat the rush hour traffic. The lady at the reception directed her to a room on the first floor, where she saw Anastas waiting.

“Captain” he said when she approached.

“What’s going on?”

“You know the gang shooting this morning?” Anastas asked her.

She did. It was the first thing on her desk when she’d got in that morning. A shoot out involving members of the Bertenelli gang. She’d guessed it was some kind of turf war, but there was no sign of the other gang involved and the Bertenelli’s had gone to ground after.

“I’ve got someone who was involved here” Anastas finished.

“Next time you should lead with that” Dinah deadpanned, “why bring this up to me? I thought Sergeant Martins was in charge of the Bertenelli investigation?”

“Normally I would, but this guy seemed pretty beat up and kept babbling about something. From experience, someone this beat up and babbling means either vigilantes or someone vigilantes would want to know about.”

Dinah nodded.

“Thank you Anastas” she said as she entered the room.

There was only one occupant. The man looked to be in his late twenties. Anastas was right, he was pretty beaten up. His face was puffy and swollen. Through the myriad cuts to his clothing, she could see bandages from where the doctors had treated him. One arm was handcuffed to the bed rail. He was muttering under his breath and flinched hard when Dinah entered the room.

“My name is Captain Drake with the SCPD. Can you tell me who you are?” she asked cautiously.

The man continued muttering.

“Can you speak up please? I can’t hear you.”

“Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. They’re coming for me. Black and white. All of them. Black and white. They’re dead now. Black and white” the man rambled.

“Who’s dead?” Dinah pushed.

“All of them. Dead and beaten.”

“Do you mean the Bertenelli’s?” Dinah asked.

The man shook his head violently.

“No, not them. But maybe now they are” the man said, “maybe now. They’re coming for me still.”

“Who’s coming for you? Tell me” Dinah insisted.

The man’s eyes went wide and he stared at her.

“Black and white!”

The man descended back into paranoid ramblings. Dinah had no idea what black and white meant. Maybe this was the other gang that had attacked the Bertenelli’s. They had taken quite a hit. Was that what this guy was so afraid of? Could this ‘black and white’ gang be coming after him still? Dinah stepped out of the room. Anastas was down the corridor at the water fountain. He looked up when she approached.

“Get anything useful?” he asked.

“Maybe. This guy might be a witness to whatever happened with the Bertenelli’s this morning.”

She considered for a moment.

“I need him put into protective custody, but Anastas, it needs be quiet. More so than protective custody usually is. He seems terrified that this rival gang’s coming after him.”

There was a loud scream. Both Dinah and Anastas’s hands jumped to their guns, heads whipping to the room that Dinah had just left. They raced to the door and crashed through it. The man was twitching on the bed. His heart monitor was going crazy. Next to the bed, standing over the man with a hand still on a needle in the man’s neck, was a figure. He was taller than Dinah but shorter than Anastas and was dressed in a strange outfit. The left leg was white and the right leg was black, as were the left and right arms. The body was reversed, with the right side being white and the left black. They wore a mask covering their whole face which was also left side white, right side black. At least that’s what black and white meant, she thought. The man on the bed suddenly seized up, the heart monitor flat lining.

“Freeze!” she yelled, drawing her gun, “down on the ground now!”

The figure didn’t even hesitate. He rushed forward, ducking beneath Dinah’s shot and slamming into Anastas. Dinah swung her gun around but the figure knocked her hand aside and aimed a kick to her stomach. She jumped to the side, but the figure slipped out the door in the distraction. Cursing to herself, she gave chase. The figure was fast. He ducked and weaved between people and trolleys, gurneys and chairs as though he were dancing. Dinah followed just as quickly, her screaming at people to get out of the way. The figure vaulted over a gurney. The nurses were too in shock to move out of Dinah’s way as she shoved them aside. This guy was not getting away!

She rounded a corner and saw her chance. The corridor was empty of people. She let out her cry, the warbling sound rushing down the corridor and smacking the figure hard in the back. He was blown off his feet. Dinah ran forward, again aiming her gun. The figure swiped, hitting the gun from her hand. They traded blows. Dinah ducked under a punch and drove her knee into the guys stomach. She heard him grunt. He rolled forward and was back on his feet. He deflected her punch and got a quick jab at her face. She felt the bruise form. She was about to cry again when a sharp pain bloomed across her forearm. She saw the gleam from a knife in his hand, now red with her blood. He kicked her in the stomach, sending her to the ground. He stood over her, staring her down with that strange black and white mask when suddenly there was loud bang. He jerked, a hand shooting up to his chest. He fell to his knees and she saw Anastas down at the end of the corridor, his gun aimed at the black and white guy. The guy collapsed forward.

“You alright captain?” Anastas called.

Dinah held up a hand as she got to her feet. The cut to her forearm wasn’t deep. Anastas was talking into his radio as he walked over. Dinah crouched down. It wasn’t standard protocol, but she had just been attacked in a hospital so forgive her for forgetting as she slowly removed the black and white mask. She couldn’t help the gasp when she saw the person beneath it.

“Is that...” Anastas breathed.

It was. Dinah had seen this face before. She and the rest of Team Arrow had slaved over this and four other pictures for days with nothing.

“Elliot Stewart” she whispered.

The team needed to hear about this. She was just about to pull out her phone when a dark patch on Stewart’s neck caught her eye. She pulled down the fabric of the suit he wore. There on his neck, just as it had been for the other four, was the same divided up circle. This was different though. Theirs had been cut into their skin. This was more like a tattoo, albeit one done onto scarred skin. The symbol connected them all, but they’d thought it was a calling card. What if it was an identifier for a gang? Were they trying to recruit those other people? Had they recruited Elliot Stewart somehow and that was why he’d gone missing? The violence with the Bertenelli’s was the same case as the missing people, all tied up in strange symbol connecting the people involved. What was this case becoming?

Team Arrow assembled in the bunker, all gathered around the large round table that was covered with files and papers. Felicity sat by a large screen which was displaying the pictures of all five victims, as well as a mugshot of the man dead at the hospital. Oliver kept his face a neutral mask as he looked over the photos. He kept glancing back to the crime scene photo of Elliot Stewart at the hospital. The black and white suit definitely stood out. Dinah arrived with another file.

“Sorry I’m late” she said as she took her seat.

“You alright D?” Rene asked.

“Peachy” she said simply, turning her attention to the screen.

“Before today we thought the victims were random” Oliver stated.

“Yes, but before today we didn’t have all the facts. Thanks to Dinah and the craziness that just went down at Star City General, I made something of a breakthrough” Felicity said, typing commands into her computer with a flourish.

The images on the screen vanished, replaced by emails, receipts and other documents.

“I scrubbed through each of the victims and found that they all had some connection to one of Star City’s gangs in the last six months at least. It was secretive and buried way, way deep in their lives but it was still there. I also cross referenced the gangs they were associated with with the SCPD database on gang violence and found this” she continued, typing a few more commands.

A list of police reports appeared.

“Every single one of the victims disappeared at the same time there was a spike in violence related to their gang. The SCPD chalked each of these up to turf wars and the like and they were never connected to the disappearances because there was always a lot of variability in when during the outbreak they disappeared.”

“So this Black and White gang picks a fight with a gang and steals one of their associates” Diggle mused.

“It looks like it” Felicity said.

“What about the guy in the hospital? The crazy one?” Rene asked.

Dinah opened the file she’d brought with her.

“DNA identifies him as Rick Yang, used to be a member of the Triad but defected to the Bertenelli’s. CSI also matched his DNA to the blood we found at the treatment plant” Dinah said.

“Were the Bertenelli’s attacked before we searched the treatment place?” Oliver asked.

Dinah quickly checked.

“According to Sergeant Martins, the Bertenelli’s were engaged in a turf war with a rival gang two days before.”

“Yang was taken in that fight. They took him to there to do … something to him, but he got out” Oliver stated.

Dinah nodded.

“He told me that they were all dead, and he wasn’t talking about the Bertenelli’s.”

“He gets out of there. He goes back to the Bertenelli’s, presumably for protection or help. The Black and White gang track him down and attack the Bertenelli’s again. Yang runs and gets picked up by Officer Anastas” he finished.

“That seems right” Dinah said.

“But it still doesn’t explain Elliot Stewart. If they were all connected to a gang in some way, how come Stewart turned against them? And what’s with the symbol carved into their necks?” Diggle asked.

“It’s not like recruitment through abduction produces loyalty. Elliot Stewart was willing to fight the police just to kill Yang” Rene said.

“Any clues from whatever he injected Yang with?” Oliver asked.

“Not much unfortunately” Felicity said, “the hospital was able to isolate the compound from his blood but CSI haven’t been able to identify it, and nor have I.”

“So we’ve just a hit a load of new dead ends” Rene commented, “brilliant.”

Oliver was deep in thought. It was a dead end, but it was further forward than they were twenty four hours ago. That was something at least.

“Keep working on it. I’m sure you’ll break through it eventually” Oliver said, getting a smile from Felicity.

“What’s the plan now?” Diggle asked.

“We keep our eyes and ears open. There’s a new gang in Star City. Elliot Stewart was missing for nearly two weeks. Whoever this new gang is, they’re professional enough to leave no traces and avoid the police radar, while somehow inspiring devotion among abductees in a matter of days. They’re dangerous, and we need to be ready.”

Dinah was once again bent over paperwork. The discovery of the connection between the disappearances and a new gang in Star City had sent the SCPD into overdrive. The gang unit were digging through their case files and every single scrap of evidence, paranoid that they’d missed something when they thought this was just typical violence. Everything was coming through Dinah. She stretched her neck, only slightly reassured by the thought that Oliver, or Felicity, or both were in the bunker doing the exact same thing as her.

It really was quite amazing how far they’d come in a relatively short period of time. Last year, vigilantes were outlawed. The official stance of the police was to arrest them on sight. Now they were working together. It was remarkable and still made Dinah laugh, because on the face of it it was absurd and shouldn’t have happened. Yet it did. At least now she had official access to Felicity’s various algorithms for combing through data. It made her job a lot easier, and while they didn’t say anything, she knew her officers appreciated it as well.

There was a knock on her door. Through the glass was stood a young woman with long brunette hair. She was holding a bag in one hand and a coat in the other. Dinah smiled as she recognised her.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Dr Caitlin Snow asked.

“Caitlin” Dinah said happily, getting up and rounding the table, “not at all. Come in.”

She pulled Caitlin in for a quick hug before directing her to the chair in front of her desk.

“It’s so good to see you. What brings you to Star City? Nothing too serious I hope.”

“Unfortunately it is” Caitlin said.

This had Dinah’s full attention. Catching up with a friend was one thing. Assisting Team Flash was another thing all together, something she would make time for.

“A couple days ago, Barry responded to a break in at a museum” Caitlin explained, “the perp got away because he injected Barry with a poison.”

“Poison?”

“Yeah, it was crazy. No matter what I did, I couldn’t seem to counteract the effects. If Barry didn’t have such a high metabolism he would have died.”

“Is he alright?”

“He’s fine now. He was back on his feet in a few hours, but it was unsettling.”

“So what does that have to do with us here?” Dinah asked.

Barry had been attacked. At the risk of sounding harsh, so what? Barry was the Flash, hero of Central City. If he wasn’t being attacked, then he wasn’t doing his job. Caitlin paused, as though not sure how to phrase it.

“I heard Felicity moaning to Cisco about a poisoning here in Star City that you guys were working on. I didn’t think much of it but the guy who poisoned Barry was dressed in the same kind of suit that your guy was wearing” Caitlin said.

“What!”

From her bag Caitlin pulled a piece of paper. It was covered in a very detailed sketch of a man in a black and white suit. It was exactly like the one Elliot Stewart had been wearing. Dinah frowned. The black and white gang were active in Star City _and _Central City. This was bigger than she’d originally thought. Caitlin was looking at her hopefully.

“Barry burned through the poison in his system before I could isolate it. I was hoping that you guys had managed to get a sample I could run some tests on.”

Dinah looked up at her and nodded.

“Come with me” she said, standing up abruptly.

She walked swiftly out of her office, Caitlin following her. Sergeant Bingsley opened his mouth to say something but quickly got out of her way. Whatever it was, it would have to wait. In no time at all, the elevator was opening into the bunker. Caitlin looked about, eyes wide.

“This is cool” she muttered to herself.

Felicity’s head popped up from where it was practically buried in one of her screens on the raised dais. She smiled at Dinah then frowned in confusion when she saw Caitlin.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Who else is here?” Dinah asked, more forcefully.

“Oliver’s training” Felicity answered, “hey Caitlin, what’s up?”

Before Caitlin could speak, Dinah ploughed on.

“Get him up here. We need that sample of poison from the black and white gang.”

Felicity continued to look confused but she got up and walked away, typing quickly on a tablet as she went.

“Dinah?”

Oliver walked over, joining them on the dais looking just as confused as Felicity when he saw Caitlin.

“What’re you…?” Oliver mumbled.

“The black and white gang attacked Barry in Central City” Dinah cut him off.

Oliver’s gaze whipped to Caitlin, who nodded.

“Then we have a serious problem” Oliver said.

Felicity returned, handing Caitlin a small vial of a clear liquid. Caitlin took it and held it up to the light.

“You have somewhere I can work?”

Felicity led her away, leaving Dinah and Oliver alone on the dais.

“If the black and white gang are in Central City as well...” Oliver started.

“Then we might not be dealing with any ordinary gang” Dinah finished.

Oliver’s face set, his typical expression at receiving bad news. Dinah felt it too. Gangs they could deal with, but for something like this, it made Dinah think of Adrian Chase or Ricardo Diaz. Judging by Oliver’s face, he was thinking along the same lines.

A few hours later and Dinah was hanging by a table in the lab section of the bunker. Diggle, Rene and Oliver were holding back. Caitlin was scanning over data on a screen. The weird lines on graphs meant nothing to Dinah. They really should have called Caitlin in sooner. If there was any chemist who could figure this strange poison out, it was her.

“No wonder I couldn’t treat it” Caitlin said eventually.

“What is it?” Oliver asked.

“This poison isn’t just one compound. It’s a series of compounds all bundled together. When it comes into contact with red blood cells, it degrades into a cocktail of poisons, each of which has its own interactions and adverse effects” she explained, “there wouldn’t be a hospital in the world which could treat them all at once.”

Dinah could see Rene and Diggle grimacing at the thought. Most poisons had some intended target or secondary effect which made them useful besides killing. This one seemed purpose built to kill, seemingly in a myriad of different ways.

“But surely if it’s so built to kill, it must come from only a small number of places?” Oliver asked.

“We have good news on that front” Felicity said, typing on her tablet.

“Nobody manufactures the completed product, since you know, that would cause uproar if it ever got out, but Caitlin was able to identify the component pieces, which are more widely made.”

“Any in Star City or Central City?” Dinah asked.

“Unfortunately not. There’s a handful of labs across the world which make one or two of the components, all for legitimate purposes. What was interesting to find though was this.”

Felicity flicked on her tablet and on a screen appeared several images. The first was a company logo and the second was a dot on a map.

“The Nocta Corporation is the only company in the world which manufactures all of the components. Interestingly, it’s also the only company who makes it for ‘research and development’ purposes.”

“So we went from a gang in Star City to an organisation producing poison cocktails in … where exactly?” Rene asked.

Felicity zoomed the map out. The dot was on the other side of the country.

“New York City. The Big Apple” Felicity said.

Oliver had been to New York a couple of times, back in his playboy days. He’d gotten up to some less than stellar things in the city, but then the only good thing to come out of that time was William. If they wanted to get to the bottom of the Black and White gang, they’d need to investigate that factory.

“We’re not seriously going all the way to New York to look into this?” Dinah asked.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing, unless you’d rather try our luck with any of the other factories across the country making components” Oliver said, raising an eyebrow to Dinah.

She sighed.

“What’s the plan?”

“Dinah and I will go to New York to investigate Nocta. We’ll coordinate with Argus, so Diggle you should come too. Felicity and Rene, you hold down the fort here.”

“I’ll come too” Caitlin said to Oliver, “you’ll be going right into the heart of where this poison is being made. I’d feel a lot better being on hand in case anything happens.”

Oliver agreed. One way or another, Black and White’s poison was not spreading any further.

New York was a weird city. In many ways it was like Star City. The people never seemed to stop and there was a definite sense of pride the people held for their home that never wavered, despite how much they would complain out loud. That being said, everything about the city seemed … bigger. The buildings were bigger. The people seemed bigger. There was no time for anything and everyone seemed to be in a rush. At least in Star City, it was familiar. Maybe that was why Oliver was comfortable there. It was his home after all.

They arrived early in the morning and spent the day casing the Nocta Corporation. Compared to the surrounding skyscrapers, the building itself was fairly nondescript. From what Oliver could see, the people entering and leaving were all ordinary people. When night fell, Oliver, Dinah and Caitlin made their approach. Diggle was a few blocks away, briefing a back up team of Argus agents. They may not be needed, but given the scale of Black and White’s operation they couldn’t be too careful.

“Alright, I see you on surveillance. Don’t worry about alarms” Felicity told them.

“Put on a good show for us” Rene snarked.

He hadn’t been all that happy about being the only one left in Star City, but Oliver didn’t want to risk leaving the city entirely undefended, especially if this all went wrong.

“Rene, make yourself useful and try and find anything suspicious in these blueprints” Oliver could practically hear Felicity guiding the man to a chair away from her.

It made him smirk. They entered the building from the roof. Slowly, carefully, they made a sweep of the building. Oliver’s hand kept twitching back to his quiver. Where were the guards? Even if Felicity was jamming their alarms, surely there would be guards patrolling. Dinah was scowling. Obviously she didn’t feel any better about this.

“It’s too quiet” she commented.

“I take it this isn’t usually how it goes” Caitlin said.

“No it’s not. Felicity?”

“I’m looking but there’s nothing. I only see you on the cameras” Felicity said, “and I can’t get a good enough reading on thermal imaging to tell otherwise.”

“There is no way a company working with dangerous chemicals would dare not have guards, especially in a big city” Dinah said, looking about uneasy.

Oliver felt uneasy as well. It reminded him of the waste treatment plant as he caught himself straining to hear any sound at all.

“I’ve looked over the floor plan for the building. There’s a basement where they get deliveries, but apart from that there’s nothing really out of the ordinary” Rene said.

“Where are the labs?” Oliver asked.

“Should be five, no six levels below you” Rene answered.

They followed Felicity and Rene’s directions. The lab was a large open space with many workstations set about. Two of the four walls were lined with fume cupboards, while on another were a series of cabinets. Cailtin immediately went over to them, opening the first one. She muttered to herself as she rummaged through, pulling out and replacing various bottles. Oliver and Dinah kept watch, eyes sweeping over the pristine work space.

“It’s all here. Everything they’d need to make the poison” Caitlin said.

“Surely they wouldn’t risk having it out in the open for anyone to steal” Dinah said, “there must be some way for them to get it out of the building without detection.”

“Give me one second” Felicity said.

Oliver’s frown was deep. A part of him wanted to call a retreat. Pull back, get out while they were undetected and go further another time. The lack of security was getting to him so he bit down those feelings. If they could get enough evidence tonight to move against Black and White, then they had to take that opportunity.

“Oliver, the door to your right. That should lead to a service elevator down to the loading bays” Felicity told them.

Oliver pushed the door open, revealing a bare corridor lit by flickering lights. At the end, opening most likely on Felicity’s cue, was a large elevator. Holding back a grimace, Oliver led the three into it. The door closed and for a few minutes, there was nothing but the sound of gears and the gentle rocking as the elevator descended. Oliver’s hand was on an arrow as the door opened, but the loading bay was just as empty as everywhere else.

“So this is how they got their poison...” Cailtin started but Oliver’s hand shot out, cutting her off.

He’d heard something. Without a word, he ducked behind a support pillar, pulling Caitlin with him. Dinah hid behind the pillar on the other side of the elevator just as a door across the loading bay opened. Through the dark, Oliver could just about make out a small group of people. Three were being pulled along by the other four and Oliver could hear muttered pleas. The group crossed the loading bay, disappearing through a door on the other side. He nodded to Dinah. Those people must have been like the ones Black and White had kidnapped in Star City, before they did whatever it was that turned Elliot Stewart to their side. The success rate couldn’t have been large, otherwise they wouldn’t have only had one convert. There was no way Oliver would let them do that to those people.

The door led down deeper. Felicity kept in contact via the comms but with no security cameras, all she had were the body cam feeds. The stairs stopped, opening onto a tunnel which twisted to the right. Oliver kept a hand on an arrow as they inched their way down it, increasingly anxious about finding those people. He could practically feel Dinah’s grip on her bo staff tighten. The tunnel led to another set of stairs, which led to another tunnel. This one was wet and dripping. Oliver could hear running water somewhere.

“If I’ve plotted your path correctly, those tunnels should have connected you to the city’s sewer system” Felicity told them.

“Perfect” Dinah muttered.

From up ahead, they heard a faint scuffle. Resolve hardening again, Oliver led them on. As they walked, they could hear a strange chanting. A scream pierced the air and they hurried forward, stopping only when the tunnel was filled with light. In front of them was a large open space. Standing around the outside were people in the same black and white costume as Elliot Stewart had been, all masked. Closer in, forming a circle around the centre of the room, was another group of people. They were in robes with the hoods up, colored in the same black and white pattern.

“Ko! To! Yah!” they chanted.

On the floor, directly in the middle of the ground, a symbol was carved. From where Oliver was in the shadows, it looked exactly like what had been carved into the missing people’s neck. A whimper drew Oliver’s attention two people. They were dressed like civilians, bruised, with bloodied necks and being held up by two masked people. The third person was on his knees on the edge of the symbol. A robed figure was stood in front of him, a knife in one hand. The knife inched closer to the man’s neck.

Oliver reacted. He tapped his comm three times, the signal for backup, before nocking an arrow and shooting. He’d aimed for the knife, but suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a masked person was there, taking the arrow instead. Seemingly as one, all the masked people turned to face them. There was a beat, then they attacked. Oliver, Dinah and Caitlin charged into the space, arrows and ice shards flying out.

“Get them out of here!” Oliver commanded.

Caitlin shot ice blasts at the people holding up the civilians. They reacted, dodging out of the way, only to be caught in a cry from Dinah, smashing them into the wall. As Caitlin ushered the civilians out, Oliver tried shooting at the masked people, hoping to provide cover, but they just dodged the arrows. Oliver whipped out with his bow, striking one hard in the face while he drove his foot into anothers stomach. A gleam caught his eye. In the chaos, all the robed figures had disappeared except for the one with the knife. He carried on, unfazed by the interruption. The man in front of him was frozen, staring wildly at the knife. Oliver couldn’t shoot another arrow, there were too many masked people in his way. The robed figure began cutting, carving the symbol surprisingly quickly, all the while chanting.

Oliver stumbled as the ground shook slightly. The civilian seized slightly. The symbol on the ground began to glow a dull white colour and Oliver watched as the symbol on his neck glowed as well, leaving behind the tattoo like mark that Elliot Stewart had. The man’s face changed, settling into a more resolute expression as he stood. The robed figure shot Oliver a glance. He raised the knife once again.

“No!”

Oliver pushed past a masked person, charging at him. He wasn’t fast enough. With a final, loud chant in a tongue Oliver didn’t recognise, he slashed the knife across the man’s throat. The man had barely hit the ground before the robed figure was blasted back by a cry. Blood began to spill over the symbol. The room shook, violently. Oliver, mid stride, was knocked off balance. He stumbled right into Dinah. Caitlin crouched in front of them, when the room shook again, throwing them all to their feet. A bright light had Oliver squinting, before a chill went down his spine. They were all on the symbol, which was glowing bright and brighter with each passing second.

“Get out of here!” he yelled.

The light blasted, ripping through them. All Oliver felt was pain, like electricity was coursing through every cell in his body. Dimly, he could hear Dinah and Caitlin next to him crying out. A strange weightlessness washed over them. Solid ground smashed against his body, bringing with it more pain and only then did Oliver scream.

Would you consider spraining your eyes from how hard you rolled them an on the job injury? Tony would, considering how often and how hard he did it. What did people expect? Tony was many things but down to play ball at a moments notice was not one of them, unless it was his ball he wanted to play with. Considering it was Nick Fury’s ball, he didn’t want a whole lot to do with it.

This metaphor got dirty quickly, or was that just him?

Either way, when FRIDAY had informed him that the director of SHIELD had requested a meeting with the Avengers, Tony had done nothing more than shrug, say he wasn’t in and kept working. He had a new StarkPad that needed to be finished by the end of the week or Pepper would have his head. He’d take fighting the Chitauri or Ultron bots any day over dealing an angry Pepper. At least with those two he could win.

When FRIDAY told him that the directors request was actually an order, Tony had simply rolled his eyes. This was a really important upgrade. Surely Fury didn’t need the _whole_ team.

When FRIDAY relayed a message from Steve, Tony huffed, setting down his tools. Fury was one thing but Tony lived in the same building as Steve. Sure, his skills at avoiding any interaction with the man were second to none, but it was a pain to actively avoid him, especially when he wanted to lecture.

“FRIDAY, I would like it on record for when Pepper inevitably kills me that I wanted to complete the model for SI but the pirate and the national icon wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Your statement has been noted Boss. Would you like me to forward it to Ms Potts?” the AI asked.

“Hold off on that. I might need it as an escape rope” Tony said, dragging his heels to the elevator that was waiting for him.

The elevator ride was quick, so there was really little he could do to keep himself from going to the briefing. Of course, he knew that Fury wouldn’t just call him for no reason. The man always had a reason. It was more that Tony didn’t like feeling like a passenger. He preferred to be in the drivers seat.

The meeting room went quiet when he threw open the doors, entirely overdramatically. Steve and Sam watched as he took his seat at the end of the table, Steve barely containing his annoyance at being kept waiting. Natasha didn’t even look up from the tablet. Fury had an eyebrow raised from his position on screen. Of course the man wasn’t even here.

“Good of you to turn up Stark” Fury said.

“Well you know Nick, what’s a few hours of missing work, besides loss of revenue and people losing their jobs” Tony shot back with no heat in his words.

“The StarkPad can wait. This is more pressing” Fury said.

Tony nodded, gesturing for the man to continue. Steve and Sam returned their attention to Fury as well.

“As I was saying before Stark decided to show up, the police have been investigating some very strange activity in the city. Their reports suggest some kind of cult that’s starting to get out of hand.”

“If the police are handling this, then why bother us with it?” Tony asked, ignoring the pointed look from Steve.

“I’m bothering you because the head of the NYPD contacted SHIELD asking for our assistance. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think much of it but I sent a couple of agents to investigate just in case.”

“What did they find?” Steve asked.

“Nothing.”

Tony frowned.

“Nothing?”

“Got your attention now Stark?”

“No, more like even more confused about why I should care?”

“Because it was a particular kind of nothing they found, the deliberate kind when someone tries to cover their tracks” Fury said.

“So this cult is trying to stay out of sight” Sam said.

“And they’re damn good at it. My agents have resources the police can only dream of and even they could barely find a trail. All we have are the few things they do leave behind, which isn’t pretty.”

Screens around the room lit up, each showing photos from different cases. Tony kept his face a mask even as he was disgusted by it. The people were all beaten, their necks particularly bloody. Tony picked up a tablet and began scrolling. One photo showed a clear profile of one of the victims neck wounds. The blood had been cleaned away, revealing that it wasn’t a straight cut. Rather, it was circular, divided in two with one half further segmented by three horizontal lines.

“Those same wounds have been found on 10 different victims. Three were in other parts of the country but the other seven were all in New York” Fury told them.

“According to the police reports, they had trouble identifying them because all the victims were homeless” Natasha read out.

“Meaning no one would miss them” Sam muttered.

“Basically” Fury agreed.

“But why make the jump to cult? Serial killers have all kinds of MO’s” Tony asked.

He’d meant for the question to annoy Fury, but the man nodded slightly.

“Police believed it to be cult related when they found this.”

Another image appeared. It was of a room, possible the living room of a house, cleared of all furniture. The carpet had been ripped up and the same circular symbol painted onto the floor. Maybe not a serial killer then, Tony thought.

“They were definitely unnerved by this but the connection was made when the last three victims were all found in or near rooms with this same kind of decoration. A very small number of witnesses at a few of the scenes said they saw people dressed in weird black and white clothes enter and leave the building.”

“So either a cult or some twisted psychos” Tony mused out loud.

“The Avengers have resources that even my agents don’t, but you also have proximity to the case. Whatever’s going on, it seems focused on New York. This cult is good enough to evade even my best agents. That makes them a threat, one I think you all should be very interested in stopping” Fury said.

That man could make anything sound ominous, Tony thought. That aside however, this did bother him. The last group that was able to operate under SHIELD’s nose was HYDRA. The Avengers all had lost sleep over what that organisation was capable of, so if there was something else like it, then something had to be done about it, absolutely. Tony was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to hear the rest of what Fury had to say, only paying attention when the man was wrapping up.

“I trust that you’ll give this the attention it deserves” he said before the screen went blank.

Nobody spoke. Tony saw the look on Steve’s face. It looked like how Natasha had described it being after he found out HYDRA was still around. Sam shared a similar expression. Natasha was as unreadable as ever. Steve looked up, taking in the room.

“Anyone have any ideas?”

Tony would have spat out his drink if he’d had one.

“Excuse me?”

“What? I was asking for suggestions” Steve said, frowning.

“I know, but you’re like the man with a plan. Whenever Fury usually calls, you’re all ‘ok here’s what we’re going to do’.”

“Tony, I don’t know what we’re going to do. We got lucky when we exposed HYDRA, but if this cult is as good as them at hiding then I have no idea how we’ll go about taking them down” Steve said, completely sincerely, cutting off any comment Tony might have followed up with.

“I’d suggest trying to find potential victims, but if they’re targeting homeless people that’ll be like finding a needle in a haystack” Sam said.

“More like one very specific needle in a whole pile of needles in a haystack” Tony added.

“Then lets try and narrow things down” Natasha said, “I’ll head down to the nearby shelters. If someone’s kidnapping homeless people, then maybe they’ve heard something about it.”

“We need to know everything we can, because I highly doubt this cult has only just started being active. Somewhere there’s more information and you bet your ass I’m gonna find it” Tony said, already getting up and leaving, ignoring Steve’s orders to stay.

Tony was not going to let the people he cared about end up on another list of targets. This cult was only going after the homeless now, but there was no way of knowing when they would escalate. Tony wouldn’t let them, and if there was anyone who could dig up their dirty secrets, it was him.

Peter Parker didn’t always trust good days. With bad days he knew what he was in for. He was in for Flash making fun of him, or a particularly rough patrol, or even just a day when everything just felt grey and lifeless. He didn’t particularly like those days, but he knew he could make it through them. He’d lived through enough of them to learn that. Good days on the other hand, they were a different beast entirely. It always just felt like a set up, a way to let his guard down until suddenly life hit him with something else.

Just because he didn’t trust them, that didn’t mean he let them. Oh no. Peter fully intended every time to make the most of them, even if he was waiting for the shoe to drop at any moment. So this was how he found himself, swinging through the city, his Spiderman suit like a second skin, feeling on top of the world. Today had been a good day. Flash had left him alone. He and Ned had managed to get their robotics project to work, and May finished work early, meaning a whole evening of take out and cheesy mindless comedies. The weather was a little dreary, not sunny but not rainy either, but Peter could handle that. The city was quiet today.

Peter felt good.

“Hey KAREN, you got anything for me?” he asked.

“I’m not detecting anything, nor am I picking up any chatter on police frequencies” KAREN, the AI in his suit, replied, “maybe today is just a slow day for criminals?”

“Maybe, I’m not complaining all that much” Peter said.

There was always something for him to do. So after helping an old lady cross the street and stopping a child from running out into the road, he was tempted to call it a day. May was finishing soon. If he started home now, he could get there and browse through the menus, maybe even pick something out before…

A sudden and powerful chill swept through his body, nearly making him drop the web. He clung to it tighter, his head whipping around. It had been a long time since his spider sense had went off this strongly. The chills were still rippling through him, screaming danger! Danger! Get out of there! But get out of where? Peter looked and looked, but couldn’t figure out where the danger was supposed to be. Everything was normal!

“KAREN, what’s going on?” he asked.

“Sensors indicate your body is detecting danger” KAREN said, rather unhelpfully.

“No kidding! Where is it?”

“Scanning now.”

Peter hung there, stuck to the side of a building. His spider sense was still screaming at him. Peter focused, hoping to refine his senses and maybe pick up whatever was causing it. He heard a scrabbling sound, like someone tripped and was hurrying back to their feet. There was heavy breathing, whimpers. Then Peter heard it, and KAREN pointed it out to him. A loud scream. Peter jumped from his position, following KAREN’s pointers to the source even as his head was pounding, telling him to get out of there.

Peter swung into an alley. It was mostly empty, save for a few trash cans and fire escapes. It mustn’t be very frequented as the walls were clear of graffiti. A short way down the alley, a man was stumbling, barely holding himself up on the wall. Peter dropped to the ground when the man did. KAREN was already scanning him.

“This man needs medical attention, now!” she said.

“KAREN call 911” Peter commanded as he ran up to the man.

“Hey, hey buddy. You with me?”

He put a hand on the man’s shoulder, causing him to jolt, which was followed by a cry of pain. The man’s face was badly beaten. His clothes were hanging open, revealing large slashes to his torso which were bleeding badly. The man crawled back, wincing with every movement.

“Hey man, it’s ok” Peter said, hoping to calm him down before he could hurt himself, “help’s on the way. You just need to hang tight.”

The man wasn’t paying attention. He looked right past Peter, further down the alley and his eyes suddenly widened. Peter was smacked by another wave of chills and the man opened his mouth but no sound came out. Peter barely had time to register the knife that whizzed past and lodged itself in his throat.

Peter shot up, his body screaming danger. Further down the alley was another man. They were dressed in a strange costume that covered them head to toe. It was like a checker board with a black and white colouring, even the mask. Whoever they were, they were looking right at Peter. The man on the ground was dead. Peter swallowed his guilt and faced this new opponent.

“Ok, I’ll bite. Who are you supposed to be? Domino man?”

Peter’s words died on his tongue as his spider sense screamed at him again. He let his instincts take over, letting him twist into a jump onto the wall. He just caught the silver glint of a knife as it sailed by where he was. The figure charged, barrelling down the length of the alley.

“So you’re not much of a talker” Peter said, shooting out webs at the figures feet.

The figure danced over them, barely slowing down.

“Any chance you’ll tell me why you killed, woah god!”

Peter fired another web, but the figure ducked under it. Peter jumped to get higher but the figure jumped as well. They could jump high, too high, catching Peter with a kick mid air. Peter held back a groan as he flew backwards. Instead, he shot a web, hoping to catch himself. Just as the web tensioned, Peter saw a knife fly through the air, cutting it before he could swing. Luckily, the alley was narrow and Peter’s wildly flung arm managed to catch a wall. The figure was already on the ground, advancing on Peter.

Ok, so this guy was fast and he was strong. The alley was too narrow for Peter to manoeuvre easily. Peter glanced up. This building wasn’t too tall. If he could get to the roof, he’d have more room. He scurried up the wall as fast as he could, not needing his senses to tell him the figure was following him.

The roof was wide and clear, but Peter barely had a chance to breathe. The figure jumped up, flying over his head and landing in front of him. Peter shot a web, but the figure dodged it. He was fast and Peter’s head was pounding. The constant scream of danger was clouding his judgement. The figure ducked under another web, charging forward until they were right in front of him. Peter threw a punch, but the figure twisted away. A knife flashed and before Peter could react, the figure was jamming it into his wrist. Peter expected pain but none came, so he was actually pretty happy when he jumped away. That was until he tried firing his web shooter, only for it to splutter, web fluid leaking out of the crack made by the knife.

“Your right web shooter had been compromised” KAREN informed him.  
“I got that already!”

The figure was relentless, not letting him get any distance as they kept charging.

“Protocols have been activated. Informing Mr Stark now” KAREN said.

In any other situation, Peter might have complained, but given the oddly dressed guy with a knife who wanted to kill him, he bit those complaints down. He dodged and ducked, weaving in and out as his senses directed him. The figure didn’t back down. Peter tried throwing punches of his own, but the figure kept dodging, or worse tried to grab hold. Peter’s only choice was to try and get away, but with only one web shooter working and this guy being adept at cutting through his webs, that was an incredibly risky move.

Peter shot a web anyway, hoping again to trap the figure, but the figure grabbed his extended wrist, driving his arm up. The grip on his wrist was extremely tight and getting tighter, but Peter had an opportunity now. He punched with his free hand. The figure twisted to avoid it, but Peter still managed to catch him in the side. The figure gave a muffled groan, before he threw punch of his own. Peter’s dodge was sloppy, what with his arm still being in the figures grip.

“Peter, any more pressure and the left web shooter will be compromised as well, not to mention the damage to your bones” KAREN warned him.

Peter punched again, but the figure blocked it. He could feel the casing of the web shooter start to crack. Then the pressure was gone with a loud whining blast. Two blasts hit the figure square in the chest, sending him flying back across the roof. The Iron Man suit landed with a loud thud. The figure rolled out of the blast, sparing the pair little more than a glance before throwing a small black sphere at them. Before either could react, it exploded in a bright flash of light that had Peter jam his eyes shut to avoid being blinded. When he opened them again, the figure was gone.

“KAREN where’d he go?”

"I'm not sure Peter. They're no longer on my sensors."

"I don't suppose KAREN's having any more luck than me?" Mr Stark asked hopefully.

Peter shook his head. Mr Stark cursed under his breath.

“Looks like you had an exciting evening” Mr Stark commented.

Peter sighed. Today had been a good day. Peter didn’t trust good days.

In the end, Tony carried Peter back to the tower. He could tell Peter didn’t want to, but neither of them thought it was a good idea to try swinging with only one web shooter. When they arrived at Tony’s workshop, Peter immediately went to change out of the suit while Tony collected his thoughts. He’d not been that busy, mainly tinkering and working out the final kinks in the new StarkPad. When FRIDAY had interrupted him, telling him that one of Peter’s web shooters had been disabled, Tony had jumped into action, literally jumping out of the window. Tony had created many protocols to keep an eye on Peter. This particular one was the result of Peter having to climb down twenty stories when his web shooters had been broken by an explosion. It was mainly so Peter had help on hand if needed, and Tony was definitely glad of it now. He’d not really taken a good look at the perpetrator. All he’d seen was Peter grappling with some guy, who KAREN was telling him was responsible for breaking the shooter. His blast hadn’t had the effect he’d intended and the guy had disappeared immediately after he’d arrived, but Peter was safe. Small victories.

Peter returned in a fresh pair of clothes, dumping his spider suit on a bench. He got to work extracting the broken shooter, ignoring Tony’s increasingly pointed looks.

“So you’re just gonna ignore it then?” Tony prompted.

Peter sighed.

“No. I just wanted to get this fixed before you started yelling at me” the teen said.

Tony ran a hand down his face. Sure he wanted to yell. Obviously Peter hadn’t been able to handle the guy and should have gotten away, but the web shooter was broken so there must a story there somewhere. Tony would let Peter tell him what happened, then he would yell. He was trying to be better after all.

“Whether or not I yell depends on why exactly your shooter broke” Tony said, hoping his voice was calm, “spill kid. What happened?”

Peter held the tools still for a moment before letting out a big groan.

“This sucks Mr Stark, today was going so great as well. School was great, May’s off work early this evening and we’re gonna watch movies and get take out. Patrol was quiet and nothing was happening, but then my spider sense went off and there was this guy all beat up and running. When I went to see what was going on, some guy threw a knife and killed him! He fought me and he was really good, I mean like Captain America mixed with Black Widow kind of good, then he broke my web shooters with a knife I didn’t even see because my senses kept yelling at me to get out of there...” Peter rambled in a single breath, only stopping when Tony held up a hand.

Peter’s definition of spill was obviously more literal than Tony’s.

“Take a breath kid. In, out. Start again, slowly this time.”

Peter did take a breath, over exaggerated to make a point. When he started speaking again, he was calmer than before.

“It’s like I said, everything was quiet, right? Not much going on. I thought I was going to turn in early to spend more time with May” Peter explained, “but then my senses went off, like, big time. It was like they were screaming at me to get away but I had no idea what to get away from.”

Tony frowned.

“Did you figure it out?”

“Only because somebody screamed. I didn’t think anything of it, going to help” Peter said, his tone like he was trying to justify himself.

“Naturally” Tony said, his tone still warm, “so you found the guy.”

“Yeah and he was all beaten up. Bruises, bust lips, cuts from a knife, the whole thing. KAREN called for an ambulance but before I could do anything, this weird guy in a black and white costume appeared out of nowhere.”

Peter didn’t notice but Tony’s face paled.

“He killed the guy” Peter said quietly.

“What do you mean black and white?” Tony asked, interrupting the story.

Peter frowned, confused at the question.

“What do you mean? His suit was black and white.”

“FRIDAY, connect to KAREN. Show me this guy” Tony instructed.

A holographic screen appeared, showing the view from Peter’s mask when the guy first appeared. The suit was indeed black and white. Tony took several steadying breaths, drawing a worried glance from Peter.

“Mr Stark?”

“Did he say anything?” Tony asked.

“N-No he didn’t. I tried talking to him but he just attacked me instead” Peter answered, unnerved by Tony’s sudden intensity.

“Did he fight in a particular way? You said he was good?” Tony continued.

“He kept cutting my webs and jumped way too high. I wasn’t kidding when I said he was like a mix of Captain America and Black Widow. Too fast and too sneaky” Peter said.

“FRIDAY, get Cap and Nat up here now!” Tony ordered before pulling up more files from KAREN.

“Mr Stark, what’s going on?” Peter asked tentatively.

Before could answer, the elevator opened and out walked Steve, Natasha and Sam. FRIDAY must have conveyed to them enough for them to all be sporting serious looks. Tony say Peter cringe slightly.

“FRIDAY said it was urgent” Steve said.

“It is” Tony said, gesturing to the image still on the screen, “it looks like we need to be a bit more proactive. They’re getting active under our noses.”

Steve’s eyes widened at the sight of the black and white figure, while Natasha frowned.

“How’d you-” Sam started, but Tony cut him off.

“Peter just had a run in with one.”

All eyes turned to the teen, who shrunk back under the attention. Tony had Peter explain what happened again. The other three kept interrupting with questions, which Peter struggled to answer as he kept shooting confused looks at Tony. Eventually, they pulled up the video feed from KAREN and watched it in silence.

“Honest, I did try and get away but he broke my web shooter” Peter said, breaking the silence, “can someone please tell me what’s going on?”

Tony bit his tongue. He knew that he should tell Peter, since he was out on the streets more than any of the others. Telling him could keep him safe. On the other hand, telling Peter might lead him to try investigating himself, which would definitely put in harms way. Tony didn’t have a chance to say anything before Steve started.

“We can’t tell you everything Peter” he said, “we don’t have all the answers ourselves.”

“I just want to understand what’s going on” Peter insisted, “I’m not gonna do anything stupid.”

Sam barely contained his laugh, earning a glare from the teen.

“Steve” Tony warned.

“Tony” Steve returned the tone with one of his own, “at least this way he’ll be prepared.”

Tony grumbled a bit before letting out a “fine.”

Steve turned back to Peter, who was waiting patiently.

“A few days ago, Fury told us about some suspicious cult activity. This cult had been kidnapping homeless people and murdering them. Witnesses said they were wearing black and white clothes, like those” Steve gestured to the image on the screen.

“So the guy I fought was what, an enforcer? Assassin?”

“We have no idea. All we know is they can hide themselves from SHIELD and, now, that they’re more skilled than we thought.”

“Which means that you” Tony pointed at Peter, “stay out of this. I mean it. Not only would your aunt kill me if you get caught up in this, but I’ll have no choice but to let her.”

Peter’s eyes fell and he bit his lip.

“Don’t worry Mr Stark. I’ll try not to get involved, but if it’s all the same to you guys, I’ll keep an eye out just in case.”

“I figured you would, but you call us immediately if you find anything. And don’t go looking for trouble either” Tony said.

“I will, and I won’t” Peter said.

His eyes were still down, so Tony walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Relax, I’m not mad” Tony said, giving the teens shoulder a squeeze, “I’ll have the suit fixed by tomorrow.”

Peter perked up slightly, a small smile creeping onto his face. While he would have loved fix the suit together, Tony had business to discuss. He shooed the teen out, reminding him that his aunt was waiting for him at home. When he was gone, Tony turned to face the other three. They had work to do.

The first job was to look into the murder victim that Peter couldn’t save. The ambulance had shown up not long after Peter called, and the body was taken by police as soon as death was pronounced. Natasha combed through everything the police had found. The victims name was Harold Wild. Nothing was out of the ordinary, worked for some chemical research laboratory in the city. He didn’t have any prior interactions with police, no complaints of misconduct, nothing. He was practically a model citizen. When Tony aired that thought, all it earned was a raised eyebrow from Natasha.

“Tony, this cult kidnapped homeless people because they wouldn’t be missed. Now they escalate to killing someone with a name, a job and presumably family and friends. Something about this guy had to be out of the ordinary.”

They worked through the night. Despite combing through the man’s records, everything from social security to social media (the man was prolific on Twitter), they found nothing. If Tony didn’t know her better, he would have guessed Natasha wasn’t fazed by it. However, since he did know her, he knew that she was annoyed by the lack of dirt to be found.

They hit dead end after dead end, right up until FRIDAY perked up.

“Boss, you might want to see this. Suspicious murder filed by the police.”

Tony did indeed perk up, if only because he trusted his AI wouldn’t interrupt him for any old murder.

“Define suspicious?” Tony asked.

The report said the victim was a woman in her late thirties, identified as Katherine Hail. Nothing jumped out of the police report as suspicious.

“Autopsy report confirmed that she was poisoned, but toxicology has yet to identify the poison used” FRIDAY explained.

Natasha also perked up from her tablet.

“How come?” she asked.

“The crime lab isn’t sure, but it seems like the equipment they have isn’t heavy duty enough to analyse the compound.”

They exchanged a look.

“So they got a sample of it?” Tony asked, and the AI confirmed it.

“This could be nothing” Natasha said, voicing a doubt Tony had.

“Or it could be something. At the very least we can give the police a hand” Tony countered.

Natasha nodded, walking away while pulling out her phone. He just about heard her giving instructions to someone. Meanwhile, Tony turned back to the police report.

“FRI, tell me about Katherine Hail.”

“Katherine hail, aged 38. Looks like she moved to New York when she was 10 and has lived here ever since. Her employment was listed as a secretary.”

“Somewhere nice, I hope.”

“She is listed as working for the Nocta Corporation” FRIDAY said.

Tony frowned, sitting forward in his seat. Why did Nocta sound so familiar?”

“FRIDAY, who did the guy from last night work for? What company?”

There was a pause before the AI spoke.

“It would seem that Harold Wild also worked for Nocta as a chemical engineer.”

Two victims, one killed by a throwing knife to the chest and the other by an unknown poison, both happened to work for the same company. Tony sent a message to Natasha, urging her to get a sample of the poison while he got to work.

“Well than FRIDAY, let’s see what Nocta’s hiding.”

Two hours later, Tony found … nothing. He’d slipped through the security easily. Apparently Nocta was a chemical research company, working with a variety of different potentially dangerous chemicals to try and find new compounds for lots of different industries. While Tony appreciated the variety, it was the spice of life after all, the lack of anything incriminating was started to get to him. Hopefully Bruce would have something once he was finished with the sample Natasha got.

A little while later, Bruce appeared in Tony’s lab. Natasha was sprawled out on the sofa, reading something on her tablet while Tony stared at a wall of code. Tony spared the scientist a glance, his face begging for answers like he was an addict in need of a fix.

“I managed to break down that poison” Bruce said, gesturing to the results on the tablet in his hand.

Natasha was on her feet in an instant, taking the tablet from him.

“I never doubted you Bruce” Tony smiled warmly.

“Don’t thank me just yet. The reason the police had so much trouble is because it’s not just one poison, it’s more like a soup of poisons connected together” Bruce explained, pinching the bridge of his nose, “whoever made this wanted to be absolutely sure that no one would survive it.”

Tony’s face darkened. Thankfully, Natasha remained composed.

“Do we have any idea of who could have made this?” she asked.

FRIDAY answered.

“The components of the mixture are used in a variety of labs across the world. However, there is one lab in the US which regularly uses all of them.”

“I can’t take the suspense FRIDAY” Tony commented.

“All other uses are for their intended purposes, except for the Nocta corporation, who uses the components for purely research purposes.”

Nocta, again! This couldn’t be a coincidence. His face hardened as he sat back down at his desk. Bruce retreated back his lab, while Natasha hung back. She could see the expression on his face. It was a kind of determination that yielded to nothing. Tony stared at the code on screen. Nocta’s secrets were hidden here somewhere. Tony hadn’t found them before, but he will. This was just a puzzle. A particularly annoying puzzle that he’d already sunk hours into, but a puzzle nonetheless, and Tony was determined to solve it.

It took Tony a lot longer than anyone thought it would, but eventually managed to crack open the mystery that was the Nocta Corporation. Steve had been waiting patiently, knowing that Tony would get it, eventually. Not being a genius, all Steve could do was be ready to move, so when Tony burst into the room, a look of wild glee on his face as he rattled off about hidden schematics in the building construction, Steve didn’t question it. He just called everyone to suit up.

The team on site was small, only himself, Natasha and Sam. Tony had been ready to come as well, and no doubt would have had Pepper not appeared and dragged him away claiming that seven hours of sleep in three days was not healthy. Tony grumbled but insisted that he be backup just in case. Steve had agreed but only to get Tony to go to bed. Lord knows, the man needed it.

“Security system’s down. We shouldn’t have a problem” Natasha said as they crept silently around the back of the building.

According to the plans Tony had unearthed, the building was connected to a series of tunnels running underground that led into the sewer network. Scans of the area showed that to be true, but the extent of the tunnels wasn’t clear as there was too much interference. They approached the sealed doors leading to a loading bay. The door to the tunnels should be inside. Natasha had a door open in seconds, and Steve led the way inside. The loading bay was lit only by a few dim security lights. It meant lots of darkness to hide in.

“All clear” Sam said, red of his goggles glowing slightly as he scanned the room.

“The door to the tunnels?”

“Should be on the other side” Sam said.

Sam led them through the dark room, while Steve strained his eyes to make out anything else in the loading bay. The shadows seemed to dance as they moved, playing tricks on him.

“Here” Sam said.

The door was completely nondescript. If he didn’t know better, Steve would have guessed it was storage closet. Natasha went to pick the lock, but Sam pushed it open. Steve didn’t like that. Why would they leave the door unlocked?

“I’ve got point” Sam said, heading through the door.

He had one of his mechanical wings out, curled in front of him like a shield as he levelled a gun. Natasha followed him and Steve brought up the rear. The passage sloped downwards, leading them into the tunnels. Steve was on high alert. While he could just about see, he was pushing his hearing to the limits.

Then he heard something.

“Guys wait” he whispered and Sam and Natasha stopped.

It was faint, a padding sound rushing towards them.

“Down!” Steve yelled.

He ducked to one knee, raising his shield up to deflect a knife. The person wielding it kept going, running up and over Steve’s shield, jumping over Sam and Natasha. Sam fired. In the flash from the muzzle, Steve could see the black and white suit. Natasha charged around Sam, throwing punches at the figure who deflected and danced around them. The knife flashed out again, driving Natasha back. Sam was there immediately, firing more rounds. The figure somehow dodged them. There was a brief pause before they threw the knife. Sam raised his wing, catching the knife but the figure was gone.

“We can’t let him get away” Steve ordered and they ran after the figure.

Vaguely, he heard water running. They must be in the sewers by now but there was no sign of the person they were chasing. Sam came to halt, his gun raised.

“Someone’s there” he said, then called out to whoever it was “I can see you.”

“Sam?” a young, very familiar voice said.

“Peter?” Sam asked back.

In the dark of the sewers, Steve saw the person drop from the ceiling and walk towards them.

“What are you guys doing here?” Peter questioned in a loud whisper.

“What are we- What are _you_ doing here? Tony told you stay out of it” Steve shot back.

“But this is me staying out of it! A woman was kidnapped and dragged down into the sewers!”

“So you decided to follow?” Steve said.

“Of course! He wasn’t dressed in black and white so I thought it would be alright.”

Steve sighed heavily. They didn’t have time for this.

“Fine, stick close to us kid. If we find your kidnapped woman first, you get her out of here” Steve ordered.

Peter nodded vigorously.

“Of course, definitely, I can do that” Peter rambled.

Natasha shot him a look in the dark and Peter went quiet. They continued through the sewers.

“My spider drone’s detecting people up ahead and around the corner” Peter whispered.

“Of course Stark would give him a spider drone” Sam muttered, still leading the group.

Just as Peter said, as they moved further down the tunnel, they started to hear voices. The darkness began to ease up as light shone out of an entrance leading off the tunnel they were in. Steve took the lead from Sam, crouching down at the entrance, out of sight. He peeked around. Beyond was a large open space, well lit and full of people. There was an abundance of black and white on display. Some were in the same suits as the guy that fought Peter, but others were in robes with the hoods pulled up, covering their faces. Standing in the middle of the space was a woman. Steve guessed from her normal clothes that she was the one who Peter was trying to save. He frowned. She didn’t look scared at all, rather she was stood up straight, completely relaxed. There was blood on her neck.

“Can your drone get a closer look at her neck? Without being seen?” Steve whispered to Peter.

Peter nodded and the small spider shaped drone crawled down the short passage into the space.

“Can’t really make it out. Looks like a circle, but that’s definitely the right woman” Peter said, “weird, she looks a lot less scared than before.”

Steve’s face fell. When one of the people moved, he got a good look at the floor. Carved into it was the same symbol he’d seen painted on the floors with the Black and White’s previous victims. A circle cut in half, with one half further divided by three horizontal lines.

“On my signal, Peter gets her out and...” Steve started, but his voice died in his throat.

One of the robed figures stepped towards the woman. In his hand was a knife. They were holding it high, advancing towards the woman.

“Now!”

Steve charged into the room, followed closely by Sam and Natasha. Sam’s wings opened up and he took flight. The people in black and white suits moved to defend the people in robes. Steve punched and kicked, throwing his shield, but these people were good. His kicks didn’t seem to do as much damage as normal. One of them caught his shield and tossed it aside.

Natasha wasn’t faring much better. She slipped between two of them, kicking the backs of one of their knees. They fell down but immediately rolled out of it, catching Natasha’s punch as she chased them down. Sam’s gunshots rang through the space. The people managed to dodge a lot of his shots, but Sam was able to pick them off slowly.

Suddenly Peter swooped in. He shot a web out at the woman, who hadn’t moved an inch during the fight. It caught her and Peter pulled her to safety. Steve couldn’t hear what he was saying as he was too busy dealing with his own bad guys. Steve aimed for weak spots, giving it more strength than he normally would. Clearly these guys could take it. It seemed to work as he knocked two out cold. From the corner of his eye, he saw Peter get tackled towards the centre. Peter kicked out, sending the guy flying backwards, getting further hit by Sam in the air.

“I think we- ARGH!” Peter screamed.

Steve and Natasha both whipped around. Somewhere in the confusion, they hadn’t noticed that the woman hadn’t left. She walked back into the space calmly, picked up a knife which she then stabbed into Peter’s leg. Steve snapped back to attention when he heard strange chanting. Sam was still flying around, picking off stragglers, leaving only the woman and one man in black and white robes. He was chanting words which Steve didn’t understand. The woman walked towards him, smiling. The cut on her neck was glowing, as was the symbol on the ground.

The symbol which Peter had dropped to his knees on.

Steve and Natasha both ran forward. Natasha hooked her arms under Peters and yanked him to his feet. Peter froze, as did Steve. With a final chanted word, the man drew a knife across the woman’s throat.

“No!” Peter yelled, trying to scramble forward to get to the woman.

They were all thrown to their feet as the room shook violently. The symbol was glowing even brighter now as the woman’s blood started to pool.

“Guys, you need to get out of there!” Sam shouted.

Peter didn’t move. It wasn’t easy to make out through the suit, but Steve could tell he was staring at the dead woman, trapped in his own head. Natasha was there again, trying to pull him to his feet.

“Peter, come on. We need to move” she was speaking directly into his ear.

Steve hurried forward to help when the light became blinding. It hit him like a blast, ripping through the three of them. Steve felt like every single cell in his body was being shocked and burned all at once. He heard Natasha and Peter both in pain next to him. He was barely aware of a weightless feeling, but was brought back to reality as he felt himself slam into solid ground, only to fall back into darkness again.

Of course, the kid would have the suit for all of one day and he would get in trouble again. Tony couldn’t help the muttering to himself. He couldn’t! Steve, Natasha and Sam were all on a potentially very important mission, one Tony had been sidelined for. He’d slept for all of an hour when he dragged himself down to his lab. If he couldn’t be a part of the mission, he sure as hell was going to be watching over them like a hawk.

It was how he showed he cared.

Then Peter’s suit alarm came off. Knife wound to leg. Tony rolled his eyes but then frowned. Alarms blaring like this meant an Avenger in danger. What had Peter gotten himself into?

“FRIDAY what’s underoos done now?” Tony asked as the armour formed around him.

“He has sustained an injury to his upper left leg. The suit tracker puts him in close proximity to the other Avengers in the field” FRIDAY said.

Tony pushed his armour to go faster.

The last he’d checked, Steve and the others had been in the sewers. Please just be above them, please just be above them, please just be above them. Peter could have been above ground, coincidentally right on top of Steve and the team. He approached the location quickly.

“FRIDAY, I need a more specific location!”

“Scans indicate he’s below ground with the others. You need to hurry Boss!”

Tony cursed and angled himself so he was basically going straight down.

“FRIDAY, fire up the lasers. We’re going digging.”

His repulsors lit up, as did the laser cutters in his forearms. They blasted at the ground as Tony flew into the newly constructed hole. It was barely a second before he was bursting through a roof. His arms lurched painfully as he caught himself before he slammed into he ground.

It was a mess. Unconscious people littered the floor. Sam was on the ground, staring at the centre of the room which was glowing brightly. Tony stared at it, then looked around the rest of the space.

“Sam, explain!”

“Weirdo cult guy did something” Sam yelled back over the roar of the energy.

“Where’s the rest of the team?” where’s Peter went unsaid.

Sam pointed to the glowing ball of energy. The roar suddenly quieted and the glow started to fade. Tony expected to see Peter, Steve and Natasha when it stopped, and he had to stop his mind from imaging all kinds of injuries and disfigurements a creepy cult ritual could do.

It wasn’t Peter, Steve and Natasha.

It was a woman dressed in a blue coat with bright white hair. It was another woman in a leather outfit and a mask, a bo staff lying next to her. Barely conscious was a man dressed in green. On his back was a quiver full of arrows and a bow was clutched in his hand. Tony raised his repulsors, levelling them at the man just as he looked up at him. There was a tense moment where they stared at each other before the man keeled over, passing out. Tony dropped his hands.

“FRIDAY, connect to KAREN.”

“I can’t Boss. The spider suit has completely disconnected from my systems.”

Tony’s breath picked up. Steve was gone. Natasha was gone. _Peter _was gone, replaced by these three. Sam’s face mirrored his own.

What the hell just happened?


	2. Waking up

His head was pounding and his body ached. He probably would have groaned if it didn’t hurt to move. He was lying on something kinda soft, definitely not the floor of the sewers and he breathed a sigh of relief. Mr Stark probably came and got them out. It meant he had a lecture waiting for him but that was ok. It meant he was fine, and so were Steve and Natasha. But it also meant he failed, the woman he tried to save had died. She’d stabbed him in the leg! That still stung, but he could feel his advanced healing already on it. Mr Stark was not going to be happy with it. He raised his hand to rub at his face. Or he would have, but there was something on his wrist. Something on both of his wrists. He was tied down!

Peter’s eyes shot open.

The light in the room wasn’t bright but it still stung his eyes a little. He could feel his breathing quicken as he scanned the room. It looked to be some kind of hospital room, like the medbay at the Compound, but this wasn’t anywhere he recognised. Sure enough, his wrists were both cuffed to the railings of the bed he was lying in. An increasing beeping sound drew his attention to the heart monitor he was attached to. He was still in his suit but his mask. His mask! Someone had taken his mask off. It was on a small table next to the bed. He tried reaching for it, but the cuffs stopped him.

Think Peter, think! Calm down. You’ve been in worse places than this.

Yes, when I had back up.

Peter gasped. In his panic he hadn’t even seen the two beds next to his. Natasha was in the bed directly next to him, and Steve next to her on the other side. Both were still unconscious and they too were hooked up to heart monitors. Peter tried reaching for his mask again, pushing harder against the restraints. They were strong and he still couldn’t reach it. He felt exposed. People would find out who he was. His heart started racing and his hearing perked up. He could hear people moving around them, on the floors above and below. This wasn’t good. The worst thing right now would be for him to have a panic attack and sensory overload. He jammed his eyes shut, trying to focus on something constant.

Beep.

Normally when he got like this, he’d try and put a hand on someone’s heart to feel the beating, but Steve and Natasha were too far away.

Beep.

If he couldn’t reach his mask, he’d never be able to reach them.

Beep.

The heart monitors! Peter focused as best he could, ignoring the fast beeping of his own monitor to hear the steady rhythm of Steve. Or Natasha, he couldn’t tell who it was. Count the beeps Peter, that’s it. Calm down now. The beeps suddenly sped up ever so slightly. Peter frowned, peeking his open to look at the other two. Steve’s face was scrunched up, his eyes squinting. A few seconds later, Natasha’s monitor also quickened slightly and she started waking up.

“Oh I’m so glad you guys are awake” Peter said, unable to keep the shaking from his voice.

Steve and Natasha tried sitting up, only to stop when they saw the restraints.

“We really need to get out of here, because somebody’s got us tied to beds, and they took my mask off, and I don’t know what they’re going to do with us because this just screams evil scientist, I mean who else would have medical equipment just lying around inside a base.”

Peter was tugging again at the restraints.

“Kid” somebody said.

“Are you guys ok? Did they do anything to you? I mean I just woke up so I don’t know if they did anything to us, I don’t even know who ‘they’ are.”

His eyes went wide.

“Spiderman” somebody said more forcefully.

“Do you think Sam got out ok? What if they took him too and he’s just somewhere else?”

“Peter!”

Natasha’s shouty whisper cut through Peter’s ramblings, and oh god he’d been rambling. It was a stressful day alright. His heart monitor was going haywire. Natasha got his attention again and he looked at her.

“Try and keep calm, ok? Follow my breathing” she instructed, taking slighly overexaggerated breaths.

Peter did so. His heart started to calm down but it wasn’t anywhere a normal speed when the door suddenly opened, sending it spiking again. Two people walked into the room. One was a large man. He had dark skin and was dressed in a really weird suit. It was leather with red coloured shoulders. Peter took note of the gun on his hip. The other was a woman, dressed in a far more ordinary pant suit. She didn’t look armed but Peter saw the slight lump at the bottom of her jacket when she turned slightly. They both had weapons, and Peter was strapped to a bed without his mask.

“Good, you’re awake” the woman said, “now you can answer some questions we have.”

“What were you doing down in that sewer?” the man asked, his voice low and rough.

“And what did you do with Green Arrow and his team?” the woman asked as well.

They were like a tag team. Peter didn’t know who to focus his attention on. The straps were digging into his wrists. The man was looking at him weirdly and oh god what were they planning? Loud breathing drew his attention away from the people and back to Natasha. She wasn’t looking at them, instead focusing on Peter and continuing to over exaggerate her breathing for him. Peter smiled weakly and attempted to copy her, but he could still feel the eyes of the man on him.

“This can go any number of ways, but it’ll be easier for you if you answer our questions” the woman said.

“Where is Green Arrow and his team?” the man demanded, turning away from Peter.

Peter saw Steve shake his head.

“Where have you taken us?” Steve demanded back, “what do you want with us?”

The restraints were straining as Peter tried following Natasha’s breathing. It wasn’t working.

“Right now I want you to answer the questions. What were you doing in those tunnels and what did you do with Green Arrow and his team?” the woman asked more forcefully, her eyes boring into Steve.

Steve didn’t yield. Peter wasn’t even paying attention to what they were saying, the words sailing over his head without a care. He needed to get out of there. He needed his mask back on, otherwise they’d find out who he is and that would put people in danger. May, and Ned, and MJ, and everyone at school, all in danger if his name got out. He just needed to get out of these restraints and put on the mask. Then he could contact Mr Stark and back up would be on the way.

Leather and metal groaned. Peter barely had a second to think before the cuffs on his wrists were torn away from the bed. He was free! The man and the woman both looked shocked. As one, they drew out their guns and aimed at him. Peter reacted without thinking. He shot a web, yanking both guns from their grips. Two more webs had them stuck to the walls.

“What the hell?” the man said.

The woman looked equally as confused. Peter nearly jumped from the bed, only stopping when he felt dizzy. Everything was loud, the heart monitor racing until he ripped off the pad. Steve and Natasha were looking at him with concern.

“Kid, listen to me” Natasha’s voice cut through the haze, drawing his attention to her, “you need to breathe. Concentrate on me.”

Peter did. Her breathing was calm, her heart steady. How she never seemed to freak out was beyond Peter, but right now he was glad at her unflappability. He could feel himself calming down, enough that he could hear Steve pulling at his own restraints and not spiral again.

“Put your mask on” Natasha said.

Right, his mask! Peter snatched it up, slipping it on and nearly crying at how familiar it felt. The interface kicked into life and KAREN spoke into his ear.

“I’m glad to see you again. I was worried when they took off your mask.”

“Oh man, it’s good to hear your voice KAREN” Peter said, ignoring the funny looks he got from, well, everyone else in the room, “KAREN, can you contact Mr Stark for me?”

Usually, the AI would respond with a happy ‘of course’. For some reason, she was waiting. Peter tried not to let his anxiety rise again so he looked around the room. Steve had broken one restraint and was working on the other, with Natasha trying to slip out of her own. The two people Peter webbed up looked to be having a silent conversation. The man was straining, no doubt trying to pull against the webs. He should probably web their mouths so they couldn’t call for help.

“KAREN?”

“I’m sorry Peter, but I am unable to contact Mr Stark.”

He couldn’t call Mr Stark. Did Mr Stark even know where they were? With a small crash, Steve broke free of his restraints. Natasha had gotten one hand out and Steve went to help her with the other.

“Kid, you get through to Stark?” Natasha asked.

Peter let out a shaky breath.

“I tried, but KAREN can’t do it. KAREN, why can’t you?” Peter said.

“I don’t know exactly, but I’m unable to connect to FRIDAY either. Something must be blocking my signal” she replied.

“Ok, so if we get out of here, will you be able to do it?”

“I think that would be the best course of action anyway.”

Peter faced the other two, who were now both free from the beds and standing.

“KAREN should be able to contact Mr Stark if we can get out of here” Peter told them.

“Then that’s what we’ll do” Steve said.

Movement caught Peter’s attention. The woman was hitting her head against something. Against her shoulder. No, she wasn’t hitting it. She was pressing her ear to her shoulder, once, twice, three times. Red lights shone in the room and alarms started blaring. Peter bit back a curse before quickly webbing the two people’s mouths shut. Steve and Natasha’s faces hardened.

“Let’s go” Steve commanded.

Peter followed the two out. He could hear people moving around in the building and his spider sense was going off. Steve and Natasha walked as though they knew where they were going. Or they were just making guesses and walking with confidence, Peter couldn’t tell. The sounds of many pairs of boots running towards them made them stop. Of course they would be cornered in one long corridor.

“Get ready” Steve said.

From the junction at the end of the corridor came a stream of soldiers. They were dressed in tactical gear and armed to the teeth. Steve and Natasha had already charged forward as the first rounded the corner, ripping the guns from their grips. Peter hung back, not wanting to get in the way. Occasionally he would web one of the soldiers, pulling them away if they tried getting a shot off. Some of the soldiers broke off, going after Peter, but he wasn’t a stranger to fighting. He punched the first one, sending him flying down the corridor. His spider sense screamed and he ducked, dodging a punch. He grabbed the guys leg and threw him backwards as he stood back up. A quick jab dealt with another and the last was webbed to the wall.

Steve and Natasha finished with the soldiers they were fighting. He could hear them groaning from the beating they’d received, unless they were already unconscious. The two approached Peter, moving back away from the junction.

“You good?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good” Peter nodded.

Natasha pulled from one of the soldiers a radio. She’d already looted a knife and a handgun already. Steve didn’t have anything, but then the super soldier never really liked violent weapons. He preferred his shield. Peter wondered what these people had done with it.

“I don’t suppose there’s a map anywhere” Peter said.

“I’m trying to get into the computer systems but the security is seriously impressive” KAREN said.

Cybersecurity that could go toe to toe with an AI made by Tony Stark, that wasn’t good. Granted KAREN wasn’t designed for in depth hacking, but that wasn’t the point.

“If we can find a window, we’ll be good” Natasha said.

They started walking back down the corridor towards the junction. Peter agreed with Natasha. If they could find a window, they could use it to get out. Even if they were high up, Peter could carry them down. If it was too small to get out of, then at least it would give them a bit more of an idea of where they were. It was a solid plan, why hadn’t Peter thought of it?

Because you were too busy freaking out, genius.

Peter barely took two steps before his head felt like it was exploding. His spider sense was shooting chills down his back and he clutched his head, grunting from the sensation. Steve and Natasha whipped around, concern in their eyes. He knew they would question him, but Peter tuned them out. This felt almost like that it had with the weird black and white guy. That guy had definitely not been a normal guy. He hit too hard and jump way too high. If Peter was feeling the same way, then did that mean-?

Jump!

Peter’s instincts took over and he jumped up, twisting around as he did, and he landed on the ceiling. He barely had time to register the outright confusion from Steve and Natasha before they were both knocked off their feet. What the hell was that? Natasha sprung to her feet, eyes narrowed as she searched for … whatever that was. Steve also got up. He was just as defensive. Peter saw it. A strange crackling ball of yellow lightning raced down the corridor. It threw Natasha into the wall and slammed into Steve. It was all a blur, happening so fast that by the time Peter blinked, both Steve and Natasha had vanished, carried somewhere by the ball of lightning.

Despite the downed soldiers, without Steve and Natasha here, Peter felt very alone in the corridor. What just happened! They’d been investigating a creepy cult, been knocked out by a wave of light, been strapped to a bed in a hospital in a building full of soldiers and now Steve and Natasha had been abducted by a ball of lightning. This day was definitely one of the weirdest Peter had ever had. Ned was going to completely freak out when he told him. That thought brought Peter crashing back to the present. Ned would never know about this if Peter wasn’t there to tell him. He wouldn’t be there to tell him if he didn’t get out of here, but he needed to rescue Steve and Natasha. No way was he leaving them behind.

He felt a blast of air from behind him. Turning, he saw … ok he wasn’t expecting that. It was a man dressed in a red suit. On his chest was a white circle with a yellow lightning bolt on it. The head part of the suit didn’t cover his eyes or mouth, and over where his ears would be were little lightning bolts. Who was this guy? The Bolt? He certainly seemed to like lightning bolts. Lightning guy was looking at him, head tilted slightly and one eyebrow frowning.

“I should have guessed we’d be dealing with meta’s” he said.

What’s a meta, Peter wanted to ask, but between the unfamiliar place, being all on his own and facing down a guy who had to have been the one to take two of the most well trained Avengers, all the words were catching in his throat. Maybe he hadn’t entirely calmed down from his panic attack. The man turned and ran, vanishing in a blur and the crackle of electricity. Peter didn’t like it. This guy was fast, he could come from anywhere and he’d be taken just like Steve and Natasha. But, his senses had warned him about him before, at least enough to get out of the way. Maybe if he listened.

Peter closed his eyes, extending his spider sense as much as possible. It had been humming in the back of his head all this time, like a finger on the trigger of his instinct to react. It had got him through a lot, and he really should trust it now. It flared up again, screaming in his head like before, only now Peter didn’t let it overwhelm. Instead, he surrendered to its control. Without thinking, he twisted an arm back, aiming a web shooter behind him. He shot a web, hearing it contact the roof. He heard a very surprised gasp. He dropped to the ground, opened his eyes and turned around. Lightning guy was hanging from the roof by his right foot. He was looking between his webbed up foot and Peter, eyes wide with surprise. Peter’s eyes were also wide.

“I can’t believe that worked” he said, finding his voice.

“Please tell me this stuff doesn’t come out of you” lightning guy said.

“What? No, of course it doesn’t.”

“Oh thank god” lightning guy said, “I’ve already had to explain so much happening to my suits in the past. I have no idea how I’d explain having … that on my foot.”

“Ew, gross” Peter said.

Peter looked around. Since Peter had immobilised the lightning guy, more soldiers would probably be sent as back up. Peter needed to find Steve and Natasha and get out.

“What did you do with my friends?” Peter asked, because he might as well ask.

Lightning guy ignored him, looking at the webbing.

“Is it some kind of polymer? I mean, I don’t to presume given your get up but I’m guessing it’s some kind nylon derivative” he bounced a bit as he hung “the tensile strength is really good.”

Peter stopped. Was this guy complimenting him?

“Look man, I don’t really have a lot of time right now, so if you could just tell me where my friends are and what you want with the Avengers, I’ll be on my way” Peter said.

Lightning guy looked at him, frowning.

“The what?” he asked.

Peter frowned too. How was this guy confused?

“You know, the Avengers. Captain America, Black Widow, you must have realised who you captured, right?”

Lightning guy still looked confused.

“I have no idea who you’re talking about” he said.

“Oh come on, how can you not have heard of them? They saved New York a few years ago. I mean, you must have heard of Iron Man at least” Peter insisted.

The man’s eyes slowly widened. His mouth opened in an ‘oh’ shape but Peter didn’t pay much attention to it. His spider sense flared up strongly. Peter let instinct take over again as he jumped to the nearest wall. At the end of the corridor were more soldiers. They fired at him and Peter winced. He was usually good at dodging bullets but this was a long corridor with no cover in it. Suddenly, lightning guy was in front of him, his arms moving in a blur.

“Stop! Stop shooting! Wait!” the guy yelled at the soldiers, his hands in the air.

Peter’s eyes widened as he opened his hands and all the bullets that had been fired dropped to the ground. He’d caught all those bullets! He could have gotten out of the webs any time he’d liked, and Peter had just stood around talked. The soldiers held their fire, though they still had their guns trained on Peter. Lightning guy turned to face him. He had a strange look on what Peter could see of his face.

“Do you know who I am? Like at all?” he asked.

Peter couldn’t help but frown. He shook his head.

“Have you heard of the Flash?” lightning guy asked.

The Flash? It made sense given his suit, but Peter had no idea who he was talking about. He shook his head again.

“Should I have?”

“What about the Green Arrow? Black Canary? Batwoman?”

Peter shook his head. Who were all these people?

“Not even Supergirl? Superman?” lightning guy asked.

“I don’t know who they are” Peter said.

He tried to keep the nerves out of his voice, but he didn’t think he managed it. Lightning guy obviously thought these things were important, but was so important about green arrows. Could canaries even be black? And what was with the super people. Unless, they all were people. Like this lightning guy who apparently was called the Flash. The look on Flash’s face only got stronger. He nodded to himself.

“Follow me” he said, “I’ll take you to your friends.”

Despite what Mr Stark would believe, Peter did actually know how to keep his mouth shut. Sure, he was fast and loose with it. Did Mr Stark need to be regaled with the ins and outs of Decathlon practise and who answered what question and how he and Ned couldn’t seem to get their robotics project to work? Probably not, but Mr Stark didn’t actively tell him to shut up. Did muggers in back alleys need to hear all about how the weather couldn’t seem to make up its mind and how they should probably have worn thicker coats if they were going to be mugging people in the cold? Well, they had complained about his chatter but given he was stringing them up for cops at the time, Peter hadn’t paid much attention. But now? Now was different. Now he was walking with a man with crazy super speed, apparently being taken to Steve and Natasha, despite him trying to catch him not even a minute ago.

Now was definitely not the time for chatter.

The soldiers hadn’t wanted them to leave. They were very much against it, but lightning g- the Flash had waved them away, saying he had this. The red lights were still flashing, but the alarms weren’t blaring any more. That was something, right? For all his speed, the Flash didn’t seem to mind walking at the slow, cautious pace that Peter was setting for them. Nor did he seem to mind that Peter was crawling on the ceiling. Call it paranoia, but Peter had wanted something in case the Flash decided to whisk him away like he had Steve and Natasha.

“Your wall crawling’s pretty cool” the Flash commented.

Peter didn’t respond.

“Though I am wondering why you decided on being a spider of all things?” he continued.

“Didn’t choose it” Peter said quietly.

He hadn’t meant to speak, but so many people had asked him that same thing, it kind of struck a nerve. Even some of the Avengers had questioned it, back when they thought his powers came from the suit that Mr Stark had given him.

“So you got given spider powers” the Flash mused, “must have been a bit of a shock. I know it was when I got my powers.”

Shock, really? The guy was covered in lightning bolts!

They rounded a corner. The short corridor ended with a large round space. Lining the walls were a series of glass fronted cells. When they saw them, Steve and Natasha rushed to the glass. At least they were together. They frowned when they saw Peter with the Flash. The Flash’s eyes widened slightly.

“Ah. We may need someone to open the doors. Be right back.”

In a blur of electricity, he was gone. Peter dropped to the floor and hurried to Steve and Natasha’s cell. There was a panel at the side of the door, but before he could play around with it, the Flash was back, skidding to a halt and burst of air. Peter jumped back up to the ceiling. He wasn’t alone. The man and the woman from the hospital room were back, the man looking decidedly queasy. The woman gathered herself first, eyeing Peter sceptically.

“Of course the kid can stick to walls” the man said.

“Kid?” the Flash asked before he shook himself, “can you open the cell please?” he asked the woman.

She didn’t move. Instead she turned her gaze to the Flash. Peter could only imagine what she was wanting to say right now. He guessed that cursing would be involved.

“I can’t do that” she said bluntly, “those people were on the scene when Green Arrow and the others went missing. Since they broke free of their restraints, I can’t take the risk.”

“I know. Believe me I do, but you have to trust me. I think I can clear the air here so we can all figure out what’s going on” the Flash said.

“You sure?” the man asked.

“As sure as I can be” the Flash replied.

These guys obviously knew each other, Peter could tell by the tones they were using. They’d worked together before now. Whoever this Green Arrow was, he obviously meant something to three of them. The man exchanged a silent conversation with the woman before she nodded. She stepped forward, not taking her eyes off of Peter, and typed a code into the panel. The cell door opened with a hiss. Steve and Natasha emerged, both of them were tensed and ready to fight at a moments notice. Their movements were cautious. Both the man and the woman’s hands inched to their holsters. The Flash stepped between the two sets of people, holding a hand up to try and placate them.

“Do you know who the Flash is?” he asked Steve and Natasha.

Neither of them spoke.

“Come on, I’m trying to stop them from just shooting you. Do you know who I am?” the Flash insisted.

Steve clenched his jaw.

“I’m guessing you’re the Flash?” Steve asked.

“Have you ever heard of me before?” the Flash asked.

“Should I have?” Steve countered.

“What about the Green Arrow?”

“The guy they wouldn’t shut up about, no we haven’t heard of him either” Natasha said.

The Flash went through the same list of names he gave to Peter. Steve and Natasha either shook their heads or gave short answers, not dropping their defensive postures. When they finished, the Flash stepped back, nodding his head.

“What’s going on?” the man asked.

The Flash turned to the man and the woman.

“Can you guys stand down? Relax a little?”

The man shot him a frown. When the Flash nodded again, the man removed his hand from his holster, the woman doing the same. The Flash turned to Steve and Natasha.

“You guys can relax as well. We’re not going to attack you” he said.

“And why should we do that?” Natasha shot back.

“Because right now you need our help.”

He only got sceptically looks in response, so he continued.

“You guys are on the wrong Earth, and we can help get you home.”

Coming back to consciousness was rough. Oliver’s entire body seemed to ache with a dull pain, not helped in the least by his currently awkward position. He was sat in a chair, with his arms handcuffed to the chair legs. He was leaning forward, his face against cool metal. All around him the room was silent. Oliver couldn’t hear anyone and couldn’t feel any subtle changes in the air that would suggest someone moving around. Everything was still, so Oliver peeked open an eye. His face was pressed against a table. In his line of sight was a dark walk. The only light in the room seemed to be from directly over head. Carefully, he lifted his head. The room was bare, the furniture being that of the chair he was cuffed to, the metal table and a chair opposite him. Along the wall directly ahead of him was a large mirror, probably one way. It was everything you would expect from an interrogation room.

Now that he knew where he was, he needed to know what condition he was in. Nothing seemed broken, nothing screamed in pain when he moved. Aside from the dull ache that was slowly fading, Oliver thought he was in good condition. Definitely still able to fight. The cuffs seemed standard issue, if a little tighter than he’d expect, but he’d still be able to slip his hands out if he could just push his thumb a little more.

The door to the room opened and Oliver froze. A man entered. He had dark skin and was dressed in a black trench coat. He carried himself with a confidence and certainty that made Oliver think twice. This man oozed power, so he would have to be careful. What really stood out though was what the man wore on his face. Across one eye was a patch, and Oliver couldn’t help but stare at it. He steeled himself, dragging his attention away from the accessory when the man pulled out the other chair and sat down.

The man didn’t say anything for a while. Instead he looked over things on a tablet, not even looking at Oliver. Oliver could play this game. If the man wanted to wait, then he would wait. He could be patient when he needed to be. Eventually, the man looked at Oliver. He had a calculating gaze which was fixed on him as though he was dissecting him.

“This is going to be very simple” the man said, “I’m going to ask you questions and you are going to answer them.”

The man glance down at his tablet for a moment, before looking back up, fixing Oliver with the same calculating expression.

“Let’s start easy. Who are you and what were you doing down in those tunnels?”

Oliver raised an eyebrow. He knew how to play this.

“Where are my friends?” Oliver asked, his tone soft in contrast to the hard tone the man used.

The man tsked.

“That’s not how this works, now answer the question” he said, a little more forcefully.

Oliver kept his expression neutral. While he would love to push this man’s buttons, Dinah and Caitlin were somewhere, hopefully close by. He needed information before he could act, and a little more time to get his hands out of the cuffs. When Oliver didn’t answer, the man frowned.

“What did you do with Captain America, Black Widow and Spiderman?”

Oliver frowned. What on Earth? Were those supposed to be people. This man didn’t seem like the joking type so they had to be, but who on Earth would call themselves Captain America?

“Am I supposed to know who they are?” Oliver replied.

“You think playing dumb will help you. I told you this was simple and here’s why. Right now, I have Earth’s mightiest heroes on call who all want to give you a piece of their minds about what you did to their teammates.”

Oliver let the words wash over him. The man was trying to threaten him, but it was a poor threat. He said Earth’s mightiest heroes, but Oliver didn’t know any other heroes that would fit the bill, and he certainly didn’t know this man. He was trying to bluff his way to sounding more important. Oliver managed to slip his hands out of the cuffs. He held onto the metal so it wouldn’t make a sound. Even if the man was trying to bluff, he would have to wait for his chance because he was fairly certain the door had locked behind him when he’d entered. The man was still glowering at him.

“The only reason they’re not giving you a more personal welcome is because I’m here. So knowing all of that, what do you think you’ll accomplish now that you’ve broken out of those cuffs?”

Oliver hid the sudden tension that surged through him. How the hell did this man notice him breaking out? Oliver had been so subtle about it. Even Talia wouldn’t have been able to notice, unless she was looking right at his hands. Oliver frowned. Unless someone was looking at his hands, someone not in the room. Looking through the one way mirror wouldn’t help, so there must be cameras in the room. He glanced about, only letting his eyes stray for a fraction of a second so he could case the room without the man noticing.

“Let’s try this again. Who are you and what were you doing in those tunnels?”

“And I’ll ask you again, where are my friends?” Oliver repeated as well, more forcefully than before.

The man looked him over again, before glancing down at his tablet. Oliver couldn’t get a read on him.

“Your friends are in a holding cell awaiting questioning. How they end up getting treated all depends on how cooperative you end up being.”

Was this man really threatening people to get Oliver to cooperate?

“Now tell me what you did with Captain America and his team?” the man asked.

Again with this Captain America person.

“I already said I don’t know who they are. If they’re supposed to be heroes then why don’t I know about them?” Oliver demanded in return.

It was a fair question in his mind. The hero community wasn’t particularly large. This man didn’t seem to know who he was, so why was he acting all surprised that Oliver didn’t know who ‘Captain America’ was. The man didn’t seem to like Oliver’s answer.

“This playing dumb routine is getting real old. Maybe I will let Iron Man come and have a chat with you. I’m sure he’d love that” the man said, his tone and face a neutral mask.

Iron Man? Oliver shook his head slightly. Obviously this guy thought these people were a big deal. He’d called them heroes, so why hadn’t Oliver heard of them.

“Answer the question” the man demanded.

“I already have. You’re in a better position to know than me considering you must have been on the scene immediately. How did you manage that?” Oliver shot back.

“Maybe we were already on the scene” the man said.

Oliver didn’t care to play games any more. He needed to know where Dinah and Caitlin was and if that meant getting to the bottom of whatever this man was determined to find out then so be it. He shook his head.

“There was nowhere for anyone to hide. We checked, so how did you get there so quickly?”

“We already had a team on site.”

“That building was empty. The only people there were us and the guys in the black and white suits.”

The man raised an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair.

“There were people in black and white suits?” the man asked.

There was something different about the way he asked this question. It wasn’t as combative or forceful as before. Oliver nodded.

“Is that why you were there?”

Oliver nodded again.

“We were investigating disappearances in Star City which culminated in a murder by poison. The likeliest place where the poison was manufactured was the Nocta Corporation in New York City” Oliver explained.

Hopefully this was what the guy wanted to know. The man considered this for a moment, before looking back down once again to his tablet.

“These guys in black and white” he said, “did they act like a cult?”

“If by cult you mean creepy costumes and unsettling rituals, then yeah, they were like a cult. We thought they were a gang but same difference I suppose” Oliver said.

The man nodded. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a loud warbling cry and the sound of crashing. Alarms went off, red lights flashing.

“What the-” the man said as he shot up.

He opened the door to the interrogation room and Oliver took his moment. The man must have briefly forgotten that Oliver wasn’t handcuffed any more because he was caught by surprise when Oliver slammed into him. Oliver kicked him away from the door, slipping out and slamming it shut behind him.

It was fairly simple to find Dinah. Oliver just had to follow the sounds of commotion. He could vaguely hear the sounds of heavy footfalls on the floor above him but he kept his focus on the corridor ahead of him. The man in the interrogation room had said that Dinah and Caitlin were in holding cells. Typically, holding cells weren’t kept too far away from interrogation rooms, so Oliver had to go in the direction he’d heard Dinah’s cry and he should reach her soon.

Two people dressed in tactical gear appeared through a door in front of him, running in the same direction he was. They must have heard his footsteps because they turned.

“Hey! Stop-” one of them tried shouting but Oliver was already on them.

He jumped, driving his knee into the agents chest. He let his momentum carry him forward into a roll, coming up low on the other agent and tackling them to the ground. One swift punch to the face and the agent was out cold, the other agent groaning on the floor behind him. Oliver jumped up and continued running down the corridor.

He heard the sounds of fighting, as well as the familiar swoosh of ice flying through the air. He rounded a corner. The short corridor between two junctions was a mess. The crumpled remains of door was on the floor, surrounded by little bits of wall from where it had been blasted away. Dinah was fighting two agents. They were well trained but Dinah was holding her own. Caitlin was also up and fighting. She blasted shards at the agents coming from the other junction, keeping them ducked around the corner. An agent tried taking a swing at him but he dodged it, driving a hard blow to the agents chest in return.

“Green Arrow!” Dinah called.

One of the agents she was fighting fell to the ground, out cold. The other was distracted enough by Oliver’s arrival for Dinah to get in a solid hit, knocking them towards Oliver who knocked them out. They didn’t have a lot of time and both Dinah and Caitlin seemed ready to fight. They needed to get out of here and back to their friends.

“Frost, seal that junction!” Oliver ordered.

Caitlin nodded, sending a stream of ice down the corridor. The air chilled and passageway was filled with a wall of ice. When she was done, Caitlin joined the pair of them.

“We don’t have long” she said.

“Agreed. We need to find a computer or a phone or some other way to try and reach Fel-” Oliver said, before he caught Dinah’s eyes widening slightly.

Instinct took over. He heard the ever so quiet woosh, the slight whistle as the arrow head pushes through the air. His hand shot out, grabbing an arrow before it hit Dinah. He spun around, catching another arrow. He barely had a second before the tips started glowing. He dropped them just as they started to spark with electricity. Back where Oliver had come from was an archer.

He was levelling a large bow at them, already with an another arrow drawn back. He looked to be dressed in a kind of tactical gear, but more suited to using a bow and arrow in place of guns. His hair was cut short and his face was hard, staring them down.

“Nice trick” the man said.

Oliver heard a whine from behind him. He barely had time to duck before an energy blast sailed over where his head had been, shattering through the ice wall. Standing amongst the broken pieces of ice was a man in a metal suit. It looked familiar to Oliver. He’d seen it before, before he fell unconscious. No, before that. The metal was red and gold. The faceplate was down, covering the operator and giving them a perpetual frown. The hands were raised and glowing, whining as they charged for another blast.

“Wait, is that the Atom suit?” Caitlin asked quietly.

Oliver shot her a look and she readied herself, cold air pooling out of her hands. Dinah also readied for a fight, dropping into a defensive position. Suddenly there were footsteps and the man from the interrogation room ran around the corner. He was holding a gun but wasn’t aiming it.

“Stark, Barton, stand down!” he called.

Neither of the other men moved an inch, nor did Oliver.

“Yeah, not a chance Fury” the metal man said.

“That’s an order Stark” the man, Fury, growled.

“You’re not the boss of me” Stark shot back.

“They know something about the cult of black and white” Fury said.

“All the more reason to lock them back up in a cell so we can question them properly” Stark said, still not lowering his hands.

The other man, Barton, lowered his bow slightly but kept the arrow ready. Dinah glared at Fury but still frowned in confusion.

“Black and white? You mean the guys in those weird suits?”

“Like you don’t know” Stark snapped.

Oliver was trying to piece things together. Fury had mentioned an Iron Man, so he guessed that this guy was him. But he had to be sure.

“I’m guessing you’re not Ray Palmer?” Oliver directed at the metal man.

Stark’s scoff sounded weird with the robotic tin to his voice.

“You’re kidding, right? Of course I’m not Ray Palmer, why would you even think that?”

“Then why are you wearing an Atom suit?” Oliver asked.

Stark dropped his arms. He cocked his head to the side. Oliver couldn’t see his face but he guessed the man was offended.

“Seriously? What the hell is an Atom suit? Is one of your friends trying to rip me off?”

Caitlin let out a small gasp. She stood up straighter, the cold air from her hands stopping. She looked from Stark to Barton to Fury.

“Wait, you don’t know who the Atom is?” she asked.

Stark shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh.

“This is getting ridiculous now” he said.

“No we don’t know who that is?” Fury said, ignoring Stark’s ‘really Nick?’ “Should we?”

Oliver could see Caitlin’s brain going a mile a minute. She was piecing things together as well.

“What about the Flash?” she asked.

“Who’s that? Some kind of stripper?” Stark commented.

Caitlin ignored him and looked at Fury, who shook his head.

“Green Arrow? Supergirl?”

“Quit it with the twenty questions about names we have no idea who they are. Why do you think it’s so important that we know those names?” Fury asked, getting impatient.

Oliver could tell by the way Stark’s arms were twitching that he was getting impatient as well. He heard a noise from Dinah. She looked at Oliver, who nodded back at her. She’d realised it too. Barton looked between the three of them, confused.

“Wait, what just happened between the three of you?” he asked, his hand tensing on the bow string.

“Guys, stand down” Caitlin said.

Dinah didn’t look happy to do that, especially when Stark and Barton didn’t seem to be putting their weapons away, but she did stand up straight when Oliver nodded.

“What’s going on here? Why are you so cooperative all of a sudden?” Fury asked, his brow creased in suspicion.

“It’s important because you don’t know who we are” Oliver said, “and you didn’t know who our friends are.”

“You seem to think you’re all that, but we have no idea who you are either” Caitlin added.

Stark scoffed again.

“How do you not know who we are? We’re the Avengers for god sakes.”

“The what?” Oliver said.

Stark stepped forward as though to argue but Caitlin cut him off.

“You ever heard of parallel Earth’s, because where we come from there is no Avengers” Caitlin said.

She addressed the three strangers, surrounded as they were with bits of melting ice and unconscious agents.

“We’re from a different Earth, and we need your help to get home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't as long as the first, but I thought I got down what I needed so that the story can progress.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to let me know what you thought.


	3. Getting to grips

It was like a stalemate. Tony glared at the three strangers on the other side of the conference room. Fury had, somehow, managed to convince everyone to relocate there so they could have, in his words, a civilised conversation. Tony didn’t want to be civilised. These three had to know something about what happened to Steve, to Natasha, to Peter, and he would be damned if they didn’t get answers because of stupid games.

And these games were stupid.

Tony had been in his lab, stewing over everything and not at all watching the security feed of both the cell where the two women were and the interrogation room where Fury was talking to the man. The three all looked slightly worse for wear and had been unconscious when the light had faded, apart from the man, though he only lasted a few seconds. Fury had been talking to him, and the man hadn’t been answering. Tony had watched as the man, slowly, subtly, got his hands out of the handcuffs. FRIDAY had notified Fury, of course, and the director played it off well.

Then the women had woken up. He hadn’t paid them any attention. None of them had any kind of advanced tech on them. The closest there had been were body cameras on the man and one of the women. He’d ignored them, until he distantly heard a strange warbling sound. When alarms went off, Tony’d seen the women step out of their cell. He’d stepped into a suit and flew down there as quickly as he could, only to be met with a block of ice. Clint was on the other side, facing down the three. When had the man got out? The ice wall was easy to break through, but the man had good enough reflexes to dodge the repulsor blast Tony had sent his way.

Then Fury had stopped them all. Then the three strangers had started rattling off names and it was like a switch had been flicked between them, like they all suddenly understood something. The woman with the white hair said they were from a different Earth and Tony had to bite back a laugh. How ridiculous could you get? Aliens were one thing, different dimensions were a stretch, but parallel Earths? Completely unbelievable. Fury had seemed to believe it for some reason and had ushered them all into a conference room so they could all talk.

Now here he was, refusing to sit and definitely trying to intimidate the three. He would have kept his helmet up, but Fury made him retract it. No matter, Tony Stark could be intimidating when he wanted to be. Of the three, only the white haired woman sat down. Wait, didn’t she have white hair? Why was it brown all of a sudden?

“We should probably start at the beginning?” she said.

She introduced herself as Caitlin Snow. The other two seemed very reluctant to be introduced.

“How do we know we can trust them?” the man said, not taking his eyes off of Tony.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at him.

“You have a better idea how to get us home?”

“If it’s secret identities you’re concerned about, don’t bother” Fury said, “if what you’re saying is true then we won’t have any idea who you are anyway.”

“Then you first” the man said.

Tony couldn’t help but glance between the two. Fury was a stubborn old mule, and from what he could gather so was this man. Fury was leaning back in his chair, completely relaxed.

“My name is Nick Fury” he said.

Tony barely suppressed his incredulous expression.

“Never heard of it” the man said.

“That’s not surprising for a number of reasons” Fury replied before gesturing to the two Avengers on either side of him, “this is Clint Barton and Tony Stark. Their names are all over the place for anyone to see since they’re part of the Avengers, something which you’ve already said don’t know about. So now that we’ve got that charade out of the way, it’s your turn.”

The three exchanged glances with each other. Caitlin nodded and the man grimaced. Clearly he didn’t want to say anything but Caitlin’s patient face seemed to coax him into speaking.

“Oliver Queen” he said.

“Dinah Drake” the other woman said right after, sounding equally as enthusiastic as Oliver.

“Still have no idea who you are” Fury commented.

Silence fell over them again, but it was short lived as Caitlin spoke up.

“Where should we start?”

“You can start” Fury said, cutting Tony off before he could even open his mouth, “with what you know about the cult of black and white.”

Cailtin looked to Oliver and Dinah. Oliver let out a large sigh before facing Fury, ignoring how Tony was still glaring at him.

“We were tracking a series of disappearances in Star City” he started.

“Where?” Clint cut in, but Fury held up a hand, gesturing for Oliver to continue.

“We managed to track down the victims but they’d all been killed. All but one. That one turned out to be working for some kind of gang which had been attacking the other gangs in the city, and he was dressed in a weird black and white costume” Oliver continued.

“This guy broke into a hospital and killed a witness using a specific and deadly cocktail of poisons” Dinah said, “we traced it to a chemical company in New York.”

“Nocta?” Fury asked and Dinah nodded.

“We infiltrated the building and found nothing, apart from everything needed to make the poison. Turns out the building wasn’t as empty as we thought it was” Dinah said.

“There were more people in black and white, with more kidnapped people. We went after them and found them doing … something in a room underground. Whatever they were doing made the room shake. The symbol on the floor started glowing and next thing I knew, I was looking at a man in a metal suit” Oliver finished, directing the last comment to Tony.

Despite what people liked to believe, Tony did actually have restraint. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was enough to let him listen to that ridiculous sounding story. It was just too crazy to think that these people had been doing basically what he, Steve and Natasha had been doing. So Tony did what he did best. He scoffed.

“So you mean to tell us that, so we don’t blast you to kingdom and make you tell us the truth, you just happened to be doing pretty much exactly what our teammates were doing before they disappeared?” Tony deadpanned.

Oliver frowned at him before he and Dinah both looked to Caitlin, who looked to be deep in thought.

“Were you guys investigating disappearances as well?” Caitlin asked.

“Near enough” Fury answered.

“And you investigated Nocta because of a poisoning?”

Fury nodded.

“Caitlin?” Dinah prompted.

“It seems like some kind of dimensional mirroring, the same thing happening on two different Earths at the same kind causing some kind of connection between them. Cisco would be able to explain it better” Caitlin said.

“You realise how ridiculous that sounds” Tony commented dryly.

Ok, maybe it wasn’t so ridiculous. He knew there were theories of parallel Earths, and god knows Peter had rattled off about enough of them for Tony to have given some of them a look over. There was also things like quantum entanglement which could connect things that are otherwise unconnected. If dimensional entanglement was a thing, then this could certainly be an example of it. But that was just it though. Besides the words of these three people, there was no proof, which happened to be the problem with all of the multiverse theories that Tony had looked at. The math might work out, but there was no observable proof for any of them.

“I know, but it’s the only thing I can think of” Caitlin said, “if I’m right, and our worlds have been connected because of simultaneous events, then it stands to reason that if we’re here on your Earth then your teammates our probably on ours.”

Silence fell again. Tony wanted so much to rage at them and demand to know where the others were, but he held back. Add another point to his restraint. These people obviously seemed to believe it, or rather, Caitlin did and Oliver and Dinah seemed to just be going with it. He’d have to keep a closer eye on those two. Fury was watching the three carefully, obviously taking in what they’d just said. Clint was watching as well, though he wasn’t paying attention to the words. The way he kept a tight grip on his bow spoke to what he was doing.

“Is there any way that we can verify what you’ve said?” Fury eventually asked.

Caitlin frowned.

“The only thing I can think of is to find our doppelgängers. We’ll be genetically identical to them, but there’s no guarantee that we even have them on this Earth” she said.

“Convenient” Tony muttered.

Oliver raised an eyebrow at him, while Fury shot him a glare. Fury stood up.

“One of our agents will take you somewhere” he started.

“You mean another holding cell” Dinah shot in.

“No” Fury said, not missing a beat, “I mean a room to wait in. We have a more secure facility that we’d like to take you to while we confirm things. You’ll be more comfortable there and we’ll be able to keep an eye on you.”

Tony bit his tongue. He was talking about the Compound. As in the Avengers Compound, where most of the team lived. Fury was going to send unvetted, potentially dangerous individuals to live with the Avengers just so he could keep an eye on them. Before Tony could voice his thoughts, the door opened and one of Fury’s agents stepped in. She wasn’t one of the ones that the three had fought. She didn’t seem remotely phased that she had to escort three unknowns.

“If you’d like to follow me” she said, gesturing to the door.

Where they’d all looked to Caitlin during the explanations, now the three looked to Oliver. Was he their leader or something? The man was staring down Fury, and Tony had to admit the look was intimidating. Fury didn’t bat his single eye though and Oliver gave a small nod. Caitlin stood and three walked out of the room. Tony caught Oliver’s eye, and he felt that same calculating gaze on him for a moment before the man was out of the room.

There was a beat, then Tony groaned.

“Why the hell are you sending them to the Compound?” Tony rounded on Fury.

“For exactly the reasons I said” Fury said, “they’re unknowns, and if they’re dangerous then I’d rather have them surrounded by Avengers at a facility outside of the city than at a tower who’s primary purpose is a business.”

Tony groaned again.

“Well, I’m not letting them out of my sight, not until they tell us where the others are.”

“So what do you guys think? You believe them?” Clint asked, finally speaking now they were gone.

Fury turned to Tony.

“Well? Could they be telling the truth?” he asked.

Tony rolled his eyes.

“Sure, they _could_ be telling the truth, but really? Do you know how many multiverse theories there are that _could _be correct? Too many.”

“Says the man who’s literally been to space” Fury said dryly.

“And I could take a telescope and look into space and eventually find where I was, but a multiverse? The reason so many theories could be correct is that there’s no evidence” Tony said.

“Well we know one way we could verify it” Clint said, “we try and find those three. If we can find their doppelgängers then that would be proof, right?”

Tony nodded.

“It’s a big if. She even said so” Fury said.

“Can’t we ask that wizard guy? What’s his name? Strange?” Clint asked.

Tony bit his tongue. He’d only really talked to Stephen Strange a couple of times, and while they had each others numbers, he didn’t really want to talk to the man. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Tony still couldn’t really explain what Strange did, no, absolutely not. It was the because the man was an ass who acted like he knew everything.

Fury turned to face Tony, eyebrow raised.

“Would Dr Strange be able to shed some light on this?” he asked.

Tony rolled his eyes, even though truthfully he probably could.

“Fine, I’ll give Dumbledore a call, see if I can find those three while I’m at it” Tony said before leaving the room.

It just couldn’t be real. There were too many variables that could go into a solid theory of a multiverse. How did it work? Was it a branching paths theory, where every possible decision, every possible outcome, happens in its own universe? Or was it more like a starting conditions theory, where each universe had slightly different starting conditions and were otherwise left to develop from that? Caitlin had asked them about a bunch of names, obviously people she knew and who must have been important to her. Considering Tony hadn’t known them, even when they revealed their actual names, suggested this was possibly a starting conditions theory, but she’d also said something about doppelgängers. The chances of two universes, with different starting conditions left to develop on their own, independently creating two identical people was pretty much zero. Yet, Caitlin seemed to imply that it was possible.

Come to think of it, Caitlin seemed like she knew what she was talking about with this whole multiverse thing.

Tony barely registered walking into his lab, only snapping out of his thoughts when he heard Bruce talking.

“Tony?”

The other scientist was frowning at him, looking concerned.

“Bruce?”

“I asked you what happened downstairs. Is everything under control?” Bruce asked.

Tony sat down heavily on his chair.

“Sure, everything’s fine, just our guests were a little unhappy about their accommodations.”

“Are they back in a cell?” Bruce asked, “did they do anything?”

“Fury’s moving them to the Compound. Apparently they’re from a parallel Earth” Tony said.

Bruce frowned, this time from confusion.

“A parallel … Earth?”

Tony nodded. Bruce sat back against a table, deep in thought. Tony flicked his wrist and a screen came to life.

“Do you believe them?” Bruce asked, “I mean, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. Just look at the Quantum realm.”

“The Quantum realm is the manifestation of quantum mechanics as experienced by a macroscopic sensory system shrunk down to sub-nanoscopic scales. See, perfectly explainable” Tony said.

“But still, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to extend that to other versions of our universe. Like what if our matter is infused with something like, I don’t know, a fundamental frequency that prevents us from interacting with anything not on that frequency” Bruce postulated.

Tony ran a hand down his face. Usually he would intellectually spar with Bruce on things like this, just for mental exercise but right now he wasn’t in the mood.

“Feel free to theorise. Once this is over I’ll gladly join you” Tony said.

On the screen was footage from the surveillance system. Oliver, Dinah and Caitlin were all in a room. It looked like an unused office, so definitely more comfortable than the last room they were in. They were all talking, having some conversation.

“FRIDAY, keep an eye on their conversation. Let me know if anything suspicious comes up.”

“Will do Boss.”

He didn’t quite know what to make of their dynamic. Caitlin had seemed to be the brains, or at least the one who acted like she knew what was going on. However, when it came to important decisions, they all seemed to defer to Oliver. The man had been mostly unreadable when they’d been talking. If anything, he’d been just as suspicious of Tony as Tony had been of them. When he’d left, Tony had the uncomfortable feeling that he was being scrutinised by the man.

“While you’re at it FRI, do a search for those three. See if there’s an Oliver Queen, Dinah Drake or Caitlin Snow anywhere in the world.”

“That may take some time Boss” FRIDAY said, “I’ll let you know when I have something.”

Tony sighed, thanking the AI. He pulled out his phone. Scrolling through his contacts, he paused on one of the names.

May Parker.

Oh god, he’d have to tell May that Peter was missing. Tony shivered at the thought, but he pushed it aside. He wouldn’t need to tell her, because he was going to get Peter back and it would be like he was never even gone. Not again.

He kept scrolling until he found the right contact and pushed call. The dial tone rang in his ear as he waited for the phone to be picked up. Just as he was about to hang up, it connected.

“What do you want Stark?” the voice of Stephen Strange said.

Well this conversation was already off to a fantastic start.

“Can’t a man simply call his friends for a social call?” Tony asked, keeping his tone light.

“They can, but hyperactive children with zero impulse control can not.”

“You hurt me doctor” Tony said, faking pain.

“Get to the point Stark, or I’m hanging up.”

“So sure that this isn’t a social call” Tony said, fully intending to wind Strange up some more but the man cut him off.

“Tony Stark doesn’t just call anyone out of the blue. There must be a reason, so get to it.”

“Fine, since you possess the conversational ability of a blunt axe. What’s your take on the multiverse theory?” Tony asked.

He could practically see Strange raising an eyebrow at him.

“That answer is quite large, but why do you want to know?”

“Because I have three people here claiming to be from a parallel Earth” Tony said.

“Then you have three people who are on hallucinogens” Strange said without missing a beat.

“I’d be tempted to agree with you but considering they managed to put up a decent fight against us, I’d say they’re completely in control of their actions.”

“If they’re psychotic then they would be.”

“Except according to Sam, one minute they weren’t there then the next they were. Oh and this was one when three of our own disappeared off the face of the Earth as well” Tony said, expecting another retort.

None came. There was only silence on the other end of the line. There was a click and Tony heard the dial tone again. Did Strange just hang up on him? Before Tony could even voice his feelings, before he could really do more than think that thought, a ring of orange sparks appeared in the lab. Bruce startled, backing away from it before he realised what it was. The sparks formed a portal, through which Dr Strange stepped in all his robed glory. The bastard even still had the phone in his hand.

“Tell me everything.”

The room they were in was mostly bare. There was one desk pushed against the wall, next to a couple of filing cabinets. From the general air of the place, it hadn’t been used in a while. It was better than the interrogation room, slightly, and from the looks on Dinah and Caitlin’s faces, Oliver could tell they felt the same way.

He was still trying to get his head around what was happening. He’d let Caitlin take the lead when it came to explaining the multiverse stuff because she definitely had the experience. Oliver wasn’t completely clueless. While it wasn’t much, he had some experience with the other Earths, and he’d heard plenty about them from Barry. When Caitlin had said this was what was happening here, he’d known she was right, because it was the only thing that made sense. After all, whether it be his reputation as a spoiled rich kid or as the Green Arrow, the name Oliver Queen was well known across America, and these people hadn’t known it.

“So what do you think?” Dinah asked, “can we trust them?”

“At this point, we don’t have a lot of choice” Caitlin said.

“We could have fought our way out” Dinah said.

“And then what? Be stuck in a world with no way to get home?”

“Oliver, what do you think? Dinah asked him.

Honestly, he wasn’t sure. From the people he’d met on this Earth, he knew at least one of them didn’t like them. Stark hadn’t believed them and had made that opinion abundantly clear. From the way he talked, he seemed like a smart man, more so if he made the suit he was wearing. As for the others, Barton hadn’t said anything but Oliver had caught the way he didn’t let go of his bow. He was likely more a man of action. As for Fury, that man had been a mask, not revealing much. The one thing Oliver had managed to glean from him was that he was surprised when he’d told him about the Black and White gang.

“I think we need to be careful and keep our eyes open” he said.

“Do you think they believe us?” Caitlin asked.

“About us being from another Earth? No” Oliver said, “Stark seemed very against it.”

“Fury seemed more convinced” Dinah said.

“Only because of the thing with the Black and White gang, or cult, or whatever it is. He was surprised when I mentioned it in the interrogation room.”

“If they’re dealing with them on this Earth, then we might know something they don’t” Caitlin said.

“And if we tell them what we know and they find they don’t have any more use for us?” Dinah countered.

“They wouldn’t...” Caitlin started.

“We don’t know that” Dinah cut her off, “this isn’t like Kara. We don’t know these people.”

“But it would do so much to build trust” Caitlin said.

“There are other ways to build trust” Oliver said, “we need to play this carefully. Fury said they were Earths mightiest heroes in the interrogation room, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”

“I’m sure the Earth Xers thought they were heroes as well” Dinah said.

“I guess we’ll see” Oliver said.

The door opened. The same agent that led them to this room entered.

“If you’ll follow me please” she said.

Dinah frowned.

“Is something wrong?” the agent asked.

“I was expecting handcuffs” Dinah said.

“Do you want handcuffs?”

Oliver held up a hand, stopping Dinah from speaking.

“That won’t be necessary, agent?”

“Hill” the agent replied, beckoning once again for them to follow her.

With a last glance between the three of them, Oliver led the way after agent Hill.

Hill led them down the building, which Oliver guessed to be a tower, until they were in an underground parking lot. There was an unmarked black van waiting for them and Hill gestured for them to get in the back. It was less like a police van and more like a transport for tactical unit. Once again there were no handcuffs.

The drive was long, but uneventful. Caitlin dozed slightly against the side of the van. Dinah kept her eyes forward, looking like she wanted to say something but was holding back. Oliver couldn’t help but be on alert. Up front was Hill and another agent who hadn’t introduced themselves. Neither of the two spoke, which didn’t help calm Oliver’s nerves, and he couldn’t speak to Dinah and Caitlin without them hearing as well. Seeing Dinah’s side eyes, she was thinking the same thing.

Oliver had never meant for anything like this to happen. He was just doing what he thought was right, protecting his city against another gang that was threatening. In hindsight, he never should have left Star City. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have left the rest of his team behind, again. It was one more regret. Who knows how long it would take them to get home, if that was even possible. For as smart as Caitlin is, Oliver knew that this was not her area of expertise. She was more medical whereas Cisco was the engineer. He also happened to have metahuman powers which would be very handy right about now. Hopefully, everyone back home was working to fix things.

He knew John would have swooped in, taking control of the situation to the best of his abilities. Oliver trusted the man with his life. There was just one complication. He might not have a PhD but he was sure that if they were taken to this Earth, then this Captain America person and his team would have been taken to theirs. Luckily, they all had some experience with the multiverse so hopefully things were going smoothly.

“Where exactly is this facility you’re taking us to?” Dinah asked, breaking the silence after about an hour of driving.

“Upstate” was all Hill answered with.

“I might not have been to this state before, but I know that there’s a fair amount of ‘upstate’” Dinah said.

“Relax. We’ll be there in about an hour” Hill said.

Dinah rolled her eyes. Caitlin jerked awake from her doze. The rest of the drive did take about an hour. Oliver couldn’t really get much of look through the front wind shield before they were taken into another underground parking lot.

“Follow me. Don’t wander off” Hill said as the back doors opened.

They were led through corridors, all of which Oliver committed to memory. They didn’t pass anyone, and Oliver couldn’t help but be suspicious at the lack of cameras in the halls. He didn’t say anything. Eventually, after a short elevator ride, they reached a door. Hill swiped a key card and the lock opened with a hiss.

“This is where you will be staying” Hill said, pushing open the door.

The space beyond was a comfortable size, lightly furnished but functional. It was taken up mainly by a large room which combined a lounge and dining area. Along the left hand wall were two doors and a third was on the wall straight ahead of them. The right hand wall was one large window, giving them an impressive view of the field outside.

“Food will be brought for you three times a day. Through the doors on your left are the bedrooms, the door ahead is a bathroom” Hill explained.

“You guys just happen to have a room like this on hand?” Dinah questioned.

“It mostly gets used for agents who need a pit stop between missions, though occasionally some VIPs stay here” Hill said, “it should be more than enough.”

With that, Hill stepped back through the door and Oliver heard a slight hiss as it was locked.

“I guess as prison cells go, this isn’t so bad” he commented.

“You’d be the expert” Dinah said.

Caitlin let out a big breath, releasing a lot of tension. She opened one of the doors and gestured inside.

“Bunk beds” she said.

“And in this one” Dinah said, having investigated the other room.

“So I guess Dinah and I take one and Oliver gets the other” Caitlin suggested.

Both Oliver and Dinah nodded.

“I think everything’ll be fine. Our friends know about the multiverse. They’ll do what they can to get us back” Caitlin said, leaning back against the door.

“If we can make it that long” Dinah said, “we might have something of a truce with them now, but I don’t know if it’ll last. Stark looked like he really wanted to hurt us.”

“Fury seemed to think he was smart but he was dismissing everything out of hand, which means he was thinking with his feelings” Oliver said.

“He was letting his emotions cloud his judgement” Dinah agreed.

“Whoever Captain America is, whoever else was on the team that went missing, I think Stark was close to at least one of them” Oliver said.

“I guess we just have to hope that once he calms down he’ll be more reasonable” Caitlin said, before she yawned, “I don’t know about you guys but I’m going to try and get some sleep. Wake me if you need me.”

She disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Dinah excused herself to the bathroom, leaving Oliver alone in the lounge area. Like the halls, there were no cameras in this room. It made him uneasy as he inspected the room. Aside from the furnishings, light as they were, there was nothing. Hill had said the room was only used for pit stops, so he guessed it made sense. The view from the window was impressive. Fury had called this place a facility, and it certainly gave the impression of a base of operations.

Oliver inspected the window more closely. At first glance, it didn’t seem like much but it was actually a lot thicker than it appeared. If he squinted, he could just about make out a pattern imprinted on the glass. Whatever it was, it was reinforced, so there would be no breaking through it. But would it be so bad if he tried? Or if Dinah or Caitlin tried? His mind thought back to the interrogation room. That room had no cameras that he could see, yet Fury had known he’d slipped the cuffs.

“You noticed it too?” Dinah asked as she stepped back into the room, “the lack of cameras?”

Oliver nodded.

“Surely they wouldn’t just leave us unsupervised?” Dinah questioned, the indignation of a police officer coming through in her voice.

“I think they’ve had their eyes on us the whole time” Oliver said.

“How can you be sure?”

“Just a feeling” Oliver said.

Dinah excused herself, slipping into the bedroom after Caitlin. Oliver could feel his eyes getting heavy, and while he knew sleep would be difficult. He was in a strange place on a strange world. Thankfully, instincts born from Lian Yu would keep his sleep light so he was ready. Even if it was only five minutes, he needed to rest.

It was longer than five minutes when Oliver woke up. Or rather, was woken up. The entire room shook and Oliver’s eyes flew open. He was on his feet and out into the lounge area in a heartbeat. He could hear the muffled pitter patter sound of gunfire and through the tinted glass of the window he could see muzzle flashes. The other bedroom door opened and Dinah and Caitlin joined him.

“What’s going on?” Caitlin asked.

“Dinah, the door!”

Dinah ran over to the door. There was a loud crash from somewhere in the building. Dinah tugged at the handle but the door didn’t budge.

“It’s locked!”

Great! This facility was under attack and they were locked in a room. There was another crash closer to them.

“We need to get out of here. Caitlin, see if you can...” Oliver started but he didn’t get to finish.

Part of the ceiling collapsed. Caitlin jumped out of the way to avoid the shower of rubble. Oliver could hear the gunfire more clearly now. His hands itched for his bow but he had no idea what Fury had done with it. He heard people yelling in the room above them.

“Caitlin, we need a bridge!” Oliver ordered.

Caitlin nodded and her brunette hair turned white. She beckoned Oliver and Dinah over to her.

“Hang on” she said, her voice echoey.

She held one hand in front of her and one behind. With a lurch, a bridge of ice formed in front of them and they were propelled forward by a stream of cold air behind them. It was a short trip, enough to get to the room above them. It was pretty much identical to the room they had been in, except that one of the walls had been destroyed, along with the hole in the floor.

The room wasn’t empty. Five men dressed in black tactical gear were standing around, apparently in the middle of a heated argument as they took up covering positions. One of them whipped his head around when they appeared through the hole.

“What the fu...” he started to shout before Oliver was on him, quickly knocking him out.

The other four also turned, and also let out expletives, obviously not expecting to see them. Caitlin hit one with a blast of ice while Dinah threw two against the wall with her canary cry. Oliver got a hold of the first man’s weapon and shot the last of the soldiers.

“Who the hell are these guys?” Dinah asked, similarly plucking a pistol from the belt of one of the soldiers.

Oliver turned the unconscious man at his feet. On the man’s shoulders was a red symbol, a strange skull with tentacles coming out of its mouth. He’d not seen anything like this from the agents they’d fought before.

“I think they’re someone new. They didn’t know we were here” Oliver said.

The door to this set of rooms was wide open. Oliver beckoned the other two over and they made their way through it. With a gun in hand, Olive felt slightly better. He’d feel even more so if he had Felicity in his ear giving him intel, but he couldn’t be too fussy. They rounded a corner, close to the elevator they’d taken and found the walls in ruin. Outside was a mess. Judging by the mass of people, this was where the fighting was focused. It was a courtyard, possibly a landing zone, which opened out onto the wide fields next to the facility. Soldiers were taking cover behind vehicles, shooting at something they couldn’t see from their position.

“What’s the plan?” Dinah asked.

Gunfire rang through the air along with the roar of engines. A man flew by them, his silhouette against the evening sky striking due to the large metal wings. He was firing guns at the soldiers on the ground, all the while twisting in the air to avoid their returning shots. There was a flash of red and Oliver saw a woman. Her hands were glowing and objects around her were being cloaked in the same red before being thrown out. More gunfire drew his attention to another man flying about. It was the same kind of suit that Stark had been wearing but was grey instead of red and gold. One of the soldiers suddenly dropped and Oliver saw him. On the roof across from them was Barton, shooting arrows at the soldiers.

Whoever they were, Barton, and by extension Stark and Fury, were against them. Fury had said something about Avenges and Earths mightiest heroes. This must be the Avengers facility, and the soldiers were fighting against them. Oliver didn’t like it, but he had to make a decision.

“Go for the guys in tactical gear. Anyone weird, leave them alone” Oliver said.

“You trust them!” Dinah said.

“I don’t” Oliver replied, “Caitlin!”

Caitlin blasted out another bridge. Oliver and Dinah slid down it before jumping to the ground. Caitlin took off, riding her ice bridge over the soldiers, shooting shards of ice at them while making sure to keep moving. Oliver and Dinah were fast. They took their shots while advancing. Like in the room, the soldiers seemed surprised to see them. Using that to their advantage, Oliver kicked one of them hard, sending him flying. One tried punching him, but he twisted under it, driving a hard fist into their gut. He heard the warbling sound of Dinah’s cry.

Oliver got lost in the chaos. He could hear Dinah. He could hear Caitlin, but all he could focus on was the soldiers. The woman with the weird red energy was blocking a barrage of gun fire. It was impressive, but Oliver caught movement. One of the soldiers had slipped behind her and was aiming his gun. Instinctively, Oliver raised his own and pulled the trigger. The man fell. The woman glanced behind her to see the man’s body before shooting Oliver a frown.

Engines whined through the air and in a flash of red and gold, Stark joined the fight, shooting blast after blast. Oliver ducked behind a car. His gun was out of ammo. He heard ice breaking and Caitlin landed next to him. She rolled out of the landing smoothly before quickly creating a wall of ice to encase a thrown grenade. The fight seemed to be dying down.

Oliver caught the muzzle of gun in his peripheral vision. His fist shot out, smacking it away just as the gun went off. The soldier threw a few punches but Oliver blocked them all, responding with his own. The soldier fought well, but Oliver wore him down, kicking him back. The soldier stumbled, then looked around, hearing the fight not going their way, and he pulled something out of his mouth. Oliver acted without thinking. Just as the soldier was about to put whatever it was back in his mouth, Oliver grabbed his hand, wrenching it back while jabbing at the man’s throat. He heard the choke before twisting the soldier’s arm. The man dropped the thing before trying to fight again. Oliver threw to the ground. Before the man could even move, an arrow struck him in the chest. Oliver recognised the taser as it went off, stunning the man. The fight was over.

As Oliver caught his breath, he felt Dinah and Caitlin approach him. They all seemed to be in good condition. The man with the wingsuit landed next to them. Now Oliver could see him clearly. He had dark skin and apart from the wingsuit he didn’t appear to be dressed for combat.

“Thanks for the assist” the man said, his voice calm and collected.

“Who were those guys?” Dinah asked.

“Those guys?” the man gestured to the soldiers on the ground around them, “they’re HYDRA.”

“Who?” Dinah asked.

“Seriously?” the man asked, “they’re basically a Nazi death cult, how do you not know who they are?”

Oliver couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Of course they had to be Nazis.”

“Why is it always Nazis?” Caitlin mumbled.

Before the man could voice his obvious confusion, there were too loud clunks. Stark and other man in the metal suit had landed, Barton was with them. The suit helmets were folded back. Stark was looking over them with a coolly raised eyebrow, almost like he was impressed.

“Outsiders perspective, how does fighting Nazis rate?” Stark asked them.

“Just as bad as the first time” Oliver replied.

Stark kept his eyebrow raised as he shrugged off the comment. He turned to the man with the wingsuit.

“We get anything we can use?”

“Afraid not. They all took cyanide pills before we could take any of them” the man said.

“The thing in the mouth, those were cyanide pills?” he asked.

The man nodded. Oliver pointed to the man he’d fought.

“He never got a chance to take his” he said.

“I suppose one’s better than nothing” the man said.

Stark had lowered the eyebrow, his face set with an almost uncomfortable expression.

“You helped us” he stated.

“We really do need help getting home” Oliver said, picking up on the man’s expression, “you believe us.”

“Yeah” the man said, clearly not liking what he was saying, “I may have been a bit quick to just dismiss your story.”

The other man in the metal suit looked between Stark and Oliver.

“Tony, who the hell are these people?”

Stark was distracted from answering by a ring of sparks that appeared in the air. Oliver jumped back, his hands raised, ready to fight. In his peripheral vision, he saw Dinah and Caitlin do the same. None of the others seemed bothered by it. The sparks continued, forming a solid ring. The inside of the ring changed, revealing a new place on the other side. A man dressed in blue robes and a red cloak stepped through. He surveyed the scene in front of him before smirking.

“I do believe that introductions are in order.”

Peter should probably be used to how weird situations can turn out. One minute you’re on a field trip, the next you get spider powers. One minute you’re on a bus going to a museum, the next you’re on another planet fighting for the fate of the universe. So here he was, one minute he was strapped to a bed with strange people asking him questions, now he was in a conference room standing across from those same strange people. The fast guy, the Flash, had suggested they all sit, but Steve and Natasha hadn’t and neither had the man and the woman. Peter was still too wound up with nerves to sit.

“Well, I guess we should start with names” the Flash said, reaching up to his mask.

“Flash” the woman stopped him, “are you sure we can trust them?”

The Flash nodded.

“They’re from a different Earth. It’ll be fine.”

The woman didn’t look happy but didn’t say anything. The Flash reached again for his mask. He pulled it over his head. The man beneath was fairly young, maybe in his late twenties but then Peter had never been a very good judge of how old people were. The Flash smiled at them.

“My name’s Barry Allen, though I also go by the Flash” he said.

Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the name. The woman still doesn’t look happy but when Barry turns to her, she sighs.

“I’m Director Michaels, of Argus. This is Agent Diggle” she said, gesturing to the other man.

“Argus? What happened to SHIELD?” Steve asked.

“You’re on a different Earth. Some of the details will be a little different” Barry said.

“Argus is an agency running missions around the world to deal with significant threats” Michaels said.

“So like SHIELD” Natasha said.

“I guess” Michaels said, “now you, who are you?”

Steve looked to the three of them before turning back to Michaels.

“My name is Steve Rogers. This is Natasha Romanov and...” Steve said, before faltering as he looked at Peter.

Peter’s heart started racing, and was glad he still had the mask on. On a different world they may be, but Peter still didn’t know if he wanted his name out there. Besides the Avengers, only a small number of people knew who he was. Barry noticed the hesitation from both Peter and Steve because his next smile was sympathetic.

“Look, I get the whole secret identity thing. Really, I do, but you’re not on your Earth. It’ll only make things that much harder if you keep yourself hidden” he said softly, “besides, it’s not like we’ll have any idea who you are.”

Peter couldn’t help his shaking breaths. He glanced over to Steve and Natasha. Natasha was the picture of calm, still staring down the three across from them. Steve caught his eye and gave him a slight nod. With a final attempt to calm himself, Peter pulled off the mask. Barry raised an eyebrow for a brief moment before returning to the calm expression from before. Michaels and Diggle didn’t react, but then they had seen him without his mask before.

“P-Peter. Peter Parker” Peter said, nervously.

Barry smiled.

“Nice to meet you Peter Parker” he said.

“Can you tell us where we are?” Steve asked.

“You’re in an Argus base just outside Central City” Diggle answered.

“Where?” Natasha spoke up.

Peter frowned. There wasn’t anywhere called Central City. Was there?

“Details remember” Barry said.

“Right, that’s not important” Michaels said, “we need you to tell us what you were doing down in those tunnels?”

“We will” Natasha said, her voice level, “if you tell us how you responded so quickly. There was nobody in that building when we got there.”

Diggle and Michaels exchanged a look.

“We already had a team on site, doing an investigation of our own” Diggle said, “they encountered a problem so we went in to reinforce them. When we got there, our team was gone, and we found you.”

“So what were you doing there?” Michaels asked, more insistent this time.

Now it was Steve and Natasha who exchanged a look. Peter only barely caught it. The tension of the situation was getting to him. Eventually Steve started talking.

“We had some run ins with what we believed to be a cult. Based on information we gathered, we tracked them down to a chemical company in New York. We followed them down into the tunnels, where they were performing some kind of ritual.”

“What kind of ritual?” Diggle asked.

“I have no idea. All I know is they cut some poor girls throat and it made a symbol start glowing really brightly” Steve said.

Peter couldn’t help but look to the ground. He’d failed that woman. He’d gone into the sewers to try and save her and in the end she’d died. Michaels picked up a tablet from the table between them and one of the screens on the wall switched on.

“The people you were investigating, did they look anything like this?” she said.

An image appeared on the screen. Peter couldn’t help but gasp. It was someone dressed in the same black and white suit as the guy Peter fought, the same as the guys in the sewers. He saw Steve and Natasha nod. Natasha was frowning as she looked at the image.

“That’s pretty much what Overwatch reported” Diggle said, “strange ritual, cut throat and a glowing symbol.”

“How can the same thing happen on two different Earths?” Michaels asked.

Barry nodded his head.

“Not sure, but it must have had something to do with why you guys are here” he said, “Cisco might know. If we take them to Star Labs, then we might be able to get some answers.”

Peter flinched slightly. He couldn’t help it. His nerves were already on edge. While his spider sense was slightly calmer than before, it was still buzzing uncomfortably. At the sound of ‘lab’, it had spiked. Barry caught the action as he sent Peter another sympathetic smile.

“Don’t worry. Star Labs is where I work from. If there’s anywhere that can figure out a way to send you guys home, it’s there” Barry said, before turning to Michaels, “it’s probably the best place for them to be.”

Michaels frowned slightly as she thought.

“Fine, but only if you don’t go alone” she said.

Diggle stepped forward and Peter couldn’t help but shrink in on himself. The man has a hard stare and while he was keeping an eye on Steve and Natasha as well, Peter couldn’t help but notice that he kept coming back to him. The attention was making Peter uncomfortable, and he wanted nothing more than to hide behind his mask. At least as Spiderman he could be confident and snarky, usually.

Some agreement must have been made because the next thing Peter knew, Michaels and Diggle were leading them through the corridors of the base and into a garage. There were many vehicles with various levels of conspicuousness. Barry had slipped his mask back on as Diggle opened up the door to a large black SUV.

“You know I could just run you guys there” Barry suggested.

“Don’t you dare” Diggle snapped, holding up a finger.

The drive to Star Labs was thankfully short. Steve was sat up front with Diggle, leaving Natasha and Peter in the back seat. Peter’s leg wouldn’t stop bouncing. Given that Diggle wouldn’t stop glancing back at him through the rear view mirror, he couldn’t tell if it was annoying the man. He only stopped when Natasha placed a hand on his knee. She didn’t otherwise do anything, not even looking his way, but Peter didn’t care. The comforting touch on his leg was enough to keep at least a little bit grounded.

He kept catching glimpses of a yellow light zipping past them. Peter knew this had to be Barry. He’d said something about escorting them and letting people know they were coming. Diggle seemed to know his way just fine, so Peter wasn’t sure what the man in red was really doing.

Diggle had said they were in a place called Central City. It looked to Peter a lot like New York, but then he didn’t have a whole lot of experience. Aside from a short trip to Washington DC and an even shorter trip to Berlin, he had never left New York. Going to space didn’t count, at least now he was still on Earth. It was just a different Earth, one where he didn’t know anyone, and no one knew him, and he didn’t know how to get back…

No Peter! Don’t get sucked into that train of thought.

He tried focusing more on his surroundings. It was easy to do now. They had crossed over a river and a large building came into view. It was pretty much circular, with three large spires rising above the roof. It was subtle but Peter could make out a difference in some of the walls on the upper levels, as though they were newer than the rest. They passed a large dark blue sign which ‘Star Labs’.

They were here.

Diggle drove them to an underground parking lot. Peter was surprised. He’d expected it to be full of vehicles for all the people who worked here, but it was basically empty. In a blur, Barry skidded to a halt as the car pulled into a space.

“Welcome to Star Labs, not quite the best way to see it for the first time but I guess we can’t be too picky” Barry said, arms wide in greeting.

Steve and Natasha kept their faces a mask, and Peter wished he could do that too. Right now, he knew he was a picture of nerves as they all followed Barry up a set of stairs. They passed through a lobby, making the place look like a museum.

“This place used to be a major research and development company” Barry explained, “now it’s a rising star in science education and outreach.”

“That’s a bit of a change” Steve commented.

“Yeah, well, we kind of needed to do that. Nobody would have trusted this place otherwise” Barry said.

“Why’s that?” Natasha asked.

Though her tone was light, Peter heard the tell tale signs of suspicion in her question. Peter was feeling it too. Barry didn’t seem to phased, like he’d been asked this before.

“There was an explosion in the particle accelerator which ended up leading to massive changes in the city” Barry said.

Wait, what?

“Did you say particle accelerator?” Peter asked.

Barry nodded, leading them into an elevator.

“That was one of the main research areas of the labs before it, you know, exploded. Exploring the fundamentals of the universe” Barry said.

“So this place has a particle accelerator?”

Barry nodded again.

“But how big? I mean you can use small accelerators for a lot but to do the really cool stuff you need a really big ring to accelerate the particles to the energies needed to probe that deep. How much power did it use? I’d hate to see the bill for it. Was it like Geneva where the lights apparently dim in the entire city when the LHC runs?”

Peter could tell he was rambling, but he was in a laboratory with a freaking particle accelerator which was awesome to think about, and he was also just a tiny bit nervous which absolutely didn’t help. Barry didn’t mind, answering his questions as he led them out of the elevator. Diggle rolled his eyes slightly, as did Natasha though hers was accompanied by a small, but warm, smile.

Barry led them down a long curving corridor. The walls were all sleek and grey. Peter’s senses picked up voices up ahead and he quickly shut himself up. They walked through an entranceway into a large room. The room was dominated by a setup of computers, all of which were displaying maps of the city. There were other screens around the room, displaying similar things. On the right was an open glass wall, through which what looked like an infirmary. On the left was a similar glass wall, though it looked like a lab through there. On the wall directly across from the door they’d just came through was an empty mannequin. Barry had said this was where he worked from. This must be his base of operations.

As cool as everything he was seeing was, and in any other circumstances he might have been freaking out, it was the other people that had Peter freezing up. There were three of them and they all looked over as they walked in. There was a man with dark skin dressed in a suit. His hair was receding and he had a neat moustache and beard. There was another man, with tan skin and shoulder length hair. He was wearing a nerdy t shirt and jeans. The final person was a woman. She had the same dark skin as the first man and her long black hair was tied up in a bun.

“Everyone, this is Iris” Barry said, gesturing to the woman, “Joe” gesturing to the first man, “and Cisco” gesturing to the second man.

“Guys, this is Steve, Natasha and Peter” Barry said, introducing each of them to his friends.

Iris and Joe both gave Steve and Natasha and friendly nod but their eyes went wide when they saw Peter. The attention on him made him shrink even further. He didn’t even want to know what they were thinking when they looked at him, he just wanted them to stop looking at him so weirdly. He felt a presence on either side of him. Steve and Natasha had stepped closer, flanking him. It was honestly quite stabilising and Peter breathed out a small sigh of relief.

“Barry, are these um, are these the people from New York?” Iris asked.

“Yes” Barry said, “they’re from a different Earth.”

“Which one?” Joe asked.

“No idea, but if I’m right then that should be Caitlin and the others are” Barry said before turning to Cisco, “do you think you could try vibing them, find out where they are?”

Cisco glanced over Peter, Steve and Natasha before looking back to Barry.

“Don’t see why not. I’ll go get my equipment” he said before leaving.

Silence fell over everyone in the room. Steve and Natasha were like rocks, steady and strong in the unfamiliar environment. Peter was only just holding himself together. At least his spider sense wasn’t buzzing so harshly. Peter saw Iris smile a greeting to Diggle, who smiled back. These people all seemed to know each other. They must be some kind of team. His spider sense buzzed, signalling someone coming up behind him.

“Well, this is unexpected” a rough voice said.

Peter jumped around, as did Steve and Natasha. Standing in the entryway was a man, dressed in casual dark clothing. He was holding a mug of coffee and the way he was looking made Peter feel like he was under a microscope.

“Harry, these are the people from the other Earth” Barry said.

The man, Harry, raised an eyebrow. It kind of reminded Peter of Mr Stark.

“Well, judging from the tactical gear I’d guess you’re some kind of soldier” Harry said, gesturing to Steve, before looking at Natasha, “yours is more suited for stealth and movement so I’m guessing some kind of spy.”

He took a sip from his mug.

“How’d I do?”

“Something like that” Steve said.

Harry nodded walking into the room properly. He took one look at Peter and laughed.

“Only some kind of vigilante would wear something as ridiculous as that” he said.

“Harry, play nice” Joe said.

“All the same, who sends a _child_ out in spandex?” Harry continued.

Peter shuffled nervously.

“It’s not spandex” he muttered.

Suddenly Steve stepped in front of him and Natasha’s hand was on his shoulder.

“Peter is more than capable of protecting himself, and it is not your place to judge” he said, staring down Harry.

The other man didn’t budge.

“Harry, the kid’s a meta. He can crawl on walls” Barry said.

Harry slowly nodded, like he was impressed.

“I guess that explains the spider symbol” Harry said, taking another sip from his mug and walking off into through the open glass wall into the lab.

Barry shot them an apologetic look.

“Don’t mind Harry. He can be … blunt” Barry said.

Steve stepped back, though he was frowning at the back of the man’s head through the glass.

“So you can walk on walls?” Iris asked Peter.

“I’ve seen it” Diggle said before Peter could.

“I know. If you were from this Earth I’d’ve guessed you got your powers from the particle accelerator explosion” Barry said.

“How does a particle accelerator explosion give you powers?” Peter asked.

How does a radioactive spider give you powers? Come on, perspective Peter.

“Well, how’d you get spider powers?” Barry asked.

“Who has spider powers?” Cisco asked as he walked back into the room.

He was fiddling with a really weird looking pair of goggles. He looked up and saw Peter’s suit.

“Oh, right, of course” Cisco mumbled, “you got a name yet? Because if you don’t I have been known to come up with some great ones.”

Peter was a bit taken aback. He’d just had some guy called Harry grilling him, only to have this Cisco guy asking if he had a name.

“You mean like a made up name?”

“I thought Stark was joking when he said you called it that” Steve said.

Peter shrugged.

“Cisco, what do you have?” Joe asked, cutting the conversation short.

Cisco shook himself, getting himself back on task.

“Right, yes. I have something of Caitlin’s that I can use to try and lock onto her, but it would be easier if I had something of yours as well” Cisco said, pointing to the three of them.

“Why do you need something of ours?” Natasha asked, frowning.

“Think of it like a beacon, something from your world that I can lock onto” Cisco said, “it doesn’t need to be big, just something that’s yours.”

Steve and Natasha shared a look.

“Well then you’ll have to ask Diggle. Everything we had with us was taken” Steve said.

“What about that?” Cisco said, pointing to the mask that Peter was still holding onto.

Peter’s heart started hammering in his chest. Cisco caught his expression because he quickly spoke again.

“You’ll get it back, I promise. I just need it for a little bit” he said.

He seemed nice enough, nicer than Harry anyway. Peter wanted to trust him but he didn’t want to give up the mask. What if Mr Stark found a way to connect to it and he didn’t have it with him? Natasha’s hand was back on his shoulder. Slowly, he handed over the mask, instantly regretting it as soon as the fabric was out of his hands.

“Let’s get this show on the road” Cisco said, putting on the goggles and disappearing through into the lab.

Peter was fighting to hold onto his calm. The past few hours were all crashing down on him. That was part of his suit, the suit that Mr Stark had given him and he’d just handed over a piece of it to a complete stranger. Peter was such an idiot!

“Don’t worry” Barry said, “Cisco’ll find your world. We’ll get you home.”

“Tell us about your Earth. How different is it to this one?” Iris asked, curiosity in her face.

“We haven’t seen much of this place so it’s hard to tell” Steve said.

“Any cool heroes? Besides you guys, I’m guessing” she continued.

“Is the Flash of your Earth as reckless as ours?” Joe asked, earning an indignant noise from Barry.

“We don’t have a Flash” Peter found himself saying.

They don’t have a Flash, just like this world doesn’t have an Iron Man, or a Spiderman. If it doesn’t have them, then does it have a Peter Parker, or May, or Ned?

“Really?” Iris asked.

“Every Earth is different” Barry said.

“And yet somehow we both seemed to be dealing with the same group of people” Steve said, “that seems pretty unlikely to me.”

“Is this that Black and White gang that Caitlin went to Star City about?” Joe asked.

Barry nodded. They all started talking about the Black and White gang but Peter wasn’t listening. He had tried so hard but he couldn’t stop himself. The thoughts and questions, what ifs and what abouts all came relentlessly, bombarding him. Was multiverse travel even possible? Obviously it was or they wouldn’t be here, but how did they get here? Were they going to have to slit somebody else’s throat to do it, like that man in the sewers did? No! Mr Stark would figure out a way. He always did. But surely the multiverse was infinite. Cisco made it seem like they needed some kind of target to lock onto, but would Mr Stark work that out. Would Mr Stark be able to lock onto this one specific Earth among the infinite Earths out there?

They weren’t going to get home. Peter had done it, he’d left May all alone. He was all she had left and now he was gone. She was all he had and he’d never see her again. He’d never get to see Ned and MJ again. He’d never see Mr Stark again. Peter was, once again, all alone.

“Peter?”

Peter felt all eyes on him. Iris and Joe were looking at him with concern so Peter avoided looking at them, only to see Steve and Natasha with the same expression. It was too much.

“I need some air” Peter choked out before promptly turning on his heel and leaving the room.

The cold stone of the walls by the elevator helped ease the pounding in Peter’s head. He’d narrowly avoided a complete breakdown only because nobody had followed him. He was able to get back under a small amount of control, focusing heavily on his breathing. Heavy footsteps approached and Peter was about to tell Steve that he was fine when he realised it wasn’t him. Barry walked up to him, leaning against the wall beside him with deliberately heavy footfalls.

“If it makes you feel any better, I freaked out the first time I travelled to a different Earth” he said.

Peter wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Did these people make a regular habit of travelling between worlds?

“At least for me, the freak out happened when I already got back home” Barry continued, “the worst though was when I got stuck on a different Earth. I was all alone and didn’t know where to go. Luckily I found some people who helped me get home. Hopefully we can do the same for you.”

Peter opened his eyes and faced Barry. The man wasn’t looking at him, instead facing the other side of the corridor.

“Did you worry? That you wouldn’t get home?” Peter asked.

Barry nodded.

“I had a little experience with the multiverse at that point but I found myself on a world with no Star Labs. There was no one familiar I could ask for help from.”

“How’d you get back?” Peter asked.

“Honestly?”

Peter nodded.

“I met an alien. She helped me get home” Barry said, completely sincerely.

Barry turned to face him.

“There’s people back on your Earth who’ll miss you” he stated.

It wasn’t a question but Peter nodded all the same.

“I guess I couldn’t stop thinking, about how we’re stuck here and how we’ll probably be here for a while. I never wanted her to have to lose someone else” Peter said, fighting to keep his voice steady as he spoke.

“Peter, I promise that we’re gonna do everything we can to get you guys home. We’ll find out what the Black and White did to you and we’ll reverse it, or Cisco will open a breach for you to go through” Barry said, “the only thing I can’t promise is how long it’s gonna take, and I’m sorry for that.”

“No, I’m sorry. I should be handling this better” Peter said, “I mean, I’ve been to space.”

Barry raised an eyebrow.

“You’ve got to tell me that story” he said.

Peter gave him a small smile. Barry said he’d found some people who helped him. Maybe Peter had gotten lucky for once and, even though he was stuck, he didn’t have to be stuck for long. All they needed to do was figure this out. Work the problem, like Mr Stark would do in his lab. Gather the facts. Make a theory and test it. Peter could do that, he did it all the time.

We’ll find out what the Black and White did to you.

Barry’s words echoed in his head. The people here didn’t know what happened in the sewers. Diggle had been the first on the scene but by then it had all been over. The group of people in the sewers here were obviously not the same ones as Peter had fought against, but if the events leading up to it had been the same, then the event itself was probably the same. Peter didn’t really remember what had happened, but he wasn’t the only one watching.

“Peter?” Barry asked.

“I just… hang on!” Peter said, already running back to the main room.

Steve and Natasha were talking with Joe and Iris. They all looked up when he entered, concerned that he was running.

“Where’d my mask go?” Peter asked.

Iris pointed to the lab. Peter looked into the room and saw Cisco sitting on a chair, staring straight ahead. In one hand he was holding what looked like a necklace and in the other was Peter’s mask. Peter approached cautiously. A bolt flew across the room and hit Cisco.

“Cisco! The kid wants you” Harry said.

Cisco flinched, quickly taking off the goggles.

“I need my mask back” Peter said, “just for a minute.”

Cisco let out a shaky breath and gave Peter the mask.

“Needed a break anyway” he mumbled.

Peter was already pulling on the mask. The interface came to life, filling his vision with information.

“Hello Peter” KAREN said.

Hearing her voice eased some of the tension in Peter’s shoulders. He knew KAREN had made it through to this world, but when she couldn’t connect to Mr Stark Peter hadn’t given her another thought. Until now, that is.

“KAREN, can you access the computers in this room?” Peter asked, walking back into the main room.

Harry and Cisco followed him, and everyone was looking at him curiously.

“I should be able to, if you can get me an initial window to get in” KAREN said.

Peter sat down in front of one of the big computers and started typing. He wasn’t familiar with these systems, and hacking wasn’t really his thing, but he wasn’t completely useless in this area. The security was impressive, but Peter just needed to get in a little bit.

“Hey, hey, what are you doing?” Cisco asked.

“Sorry, sorry, just need a bit of access” Peter rambled.

“I’ve connected to the systems. What would you like me to do?” KAREN asked.

“I need you to display footage from the Baby Monitor protocol from what happened in the sewers” Peter said.

“One moment” KAREN said.

“Peter, what’re you...” Joe started.

The computer screens in front of Peter all began showing video footage. It was shaky, but it was clearly the sewers where the Black and White had been. Joe, Diggle and Barry rounded the console to get a better look.

“Is this?” Barry asked.

“I figured you’d need to know what happened in the sewers. It might not help us get home but it might help you stop the Black and White on your Earth” Peter said.

He suddenly felt like his idea wasn’t quite the epiphany it felt like. After all, it was just shaky footage and probably not all that useful. Diggle clapped a hand on his shoulder.

“Any information right now would be better than nothing” he said, a warmth creeping into his otherwise rough voice.

Peter smiled, pulling off the mask. Cisco was frowning at him.

“Kid, who is naming your protocols?” he asked.

Peter’s cheeks burned but before anyone could say anything more, an alarm went off. It was slow and low. Barry looked up from the screens.

“Did you get any…?” he asked Cisco.

“We haven’t heard anything” Cisco replied.

Barry zoomed off, blowing a gust of wind in his wake. Barry and Iris also ran off, Harry on their tails. Steve and Natasha frowned, unsure what to do before they followed. Peter brought up the rear. Everyone of the Star Labs people seemed to know what was going on, and while they didn’t seem too concerned, they were definitely moving with some urgency.

“What’s that alarm for?” Steve called ahead.

“A breach’s opened up downstairs” Iris called back.

Peter followed the others down into the lab and into a large room. It was roughly split in two, with one half on a raised platform with computer consoles and the other half lower down and empty. Almost empty. In the middle of the other half was a dais. Floating in the air on that dais was a shimmering blue energy. It flowed and twisted like a strange liquid. Barry was already here, watching the energy.

“Barry, is that?” Iris asked.

Barry didn’t answer her question. The energy shimmered and flickered before suddenly vanishing. In it’s place were two women. One had a short bob of dark hair and was dressed in black tactical gear. The other was dressed … very differently. She had red knee high boots and red skirt. Her top was blue with a red S on it. Oh, and she was wearing a cape. Peter glanced at the others. None of the Star Labs people looked surprised by the newcomers.

“Kara” Barry said, his tone warm and happy.

“Barry” the woman with the cape greeted him.

She stepped off the dais and Barry approached her. Her tone was serious.

“We need your help” she said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
> 
> Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this. Please feel free to leave any thoughts you might have. I'm always interested to hear how I can improve.


End file.
